MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE, 



AND 



POPULAR EDUCATION; 



BY 

S. S. RANDALL, 

GENERAL DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT OF COMMON BCHOOLS.OF THE 
STATE OF NEW YORK. 



INCLUDING A SPECIAL REPORT 

ON 

COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES, 

PREPARED IN PURSUANCE OF THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 

OF COMMON SCHOOLS J 

BY 

HENRY S. RANDALL, x 

COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF CORTLAND COUNTY. 



NEW YORK: 

C. S. FRANCIS & CO. 252 BROADWAY. 

BOSTON : 

J. H. FRANCIS, 128 WASHINGTON STREET 

1844. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by 
C. S. FRANCIS &. CO. 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District 
of New York. 



TO THE REVEREND 



EDWARD ANDREWS, 



LATE RECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, BIJfGHAMTON, 



THIS WORK 



IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 



HIS SINCERE FRIEND AND GRATEFUL PUPIL, 



THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 
Introduction, 7 

CHAPTER I. 
The Philosophy of Education, 11 

CHAPTER II. 
Physical, Intellectual, and Moral Culture, ... 23 

CHAPTER III. 
The Nature and Mission of Genius, 4c 

CHAPTER IV. 
Mental Philosophy, 58 

CHAPTER V. 
Formation and Developement of Character, . . 85 

CHAPTER VI. 
Inconsistency of Character, 103 

CHAPTER VII. 
Public Instruction, 127 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Colleges, Academies, and Common Schools, . . . 140 

CHAPTER IX. 
Common School Libraries, 176 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the present awakened state of the public mind in reference 
to Education, every thing connected with a subject of such 
magnitude and importance becomes peculiarly interesting. The 
indifference which has heretofore prevailed in reference to our 
institutions of elementary instruction is indeed surprising, but not 
more so than the disregard manifested towards a variety of other 
subjects connected with the developement and cultivation of the 
intellectual and moral faculties of our nature. The truth is, the 
great principles which lie at the foundation of the mental improve- 
ment of our species have not been brought home to the masses of 
the community, with a force at all proportional to their importance, 
or in a manner adapted to their clear comprehension. The most 
ignorant are, in general, the most selfish} and even in those rare 
cases where no higher motives can be appealed to than those of 
individual and personal interest, serious inquiry, followed by ener- 
getic action in the direction leading to the portals of knowledge 
and wisdom, will be almost sure to ensue from a skilful application 
of the selfish principle to the objects, means, and ends of existence. 
Convince the man who aspires to nothing higher than mere worldly 
wealth, and who apparently lives for no other or greater object 
than the gratification of hie animal nature, that the enjoyment of 
uninterrupted health depf nds upon the observance of certain con- 
ditions, the greater part of which are subject to his own control, 
and he becomes at once a student of physiology, and will, in due 
time, in all human probability, ascend in the scale of intellect and 
civilization, until he becomes an enlightened and useful member 
of society. Convince him, also, that the uniform practice of virtue 
and morality, in all the varied relations of life, is not only compati- 
ble with the acquisition and enjoyment of wealth, and the rational 
gratification of the physical appetites and wants, but absolutely 
indispensable to their continued and secure enjoyment, and he 
becomes at once a moral and benevolent man. In like manner. 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

convince the most careless and indifferent individual that the pres- 
ent and future happiness of his children is placed in a great measure 
at his own disposal ; that, at every stage of their progress towards 
the maturity of manhood, it is in his power to give such a direction 
to their ductile minds as will, in all probability, insure their welfare 
in all coming time, while it promotes their present enjoyment; and 
that, for any neglect in the judicious exercise of the immense power 
thus conferred, the penalty will be visited upon him in the shape 
of bodily and mental sufferings endured by his offspring as the 
direct and inevitable consequence of such neglect; — let him be 
well and thoroughly convinced of all this, and he becomes a most 
efficient and intelligent promoter of every institution for popular 
education. Add to this a conviction that nine tenths of all the 
children of the republic in which he lives receive the greater part 
of their intellectual (we cannot say their physical and moral) edu- 
cation in the primary institutions of learning ; that his own children 
must, throughout their future life, breathe the atmosphere of a 
public opinion to be formed and sustained by those whose mental 
discipline is thus matured; and that, by the influence which he may 
exert, in connection with those by whom he is surrounded, those 
institutions, instead of being nurseries of idleness, immorality, or, 
at best, of barren elementary instruction, may become the temples 
wherein the beaming innocence of spotless childhood may be 
clothed with knowledge, and wisdom, and virtue, day by day and 
hour by hour, without parting with its sinless purity of nature ; — 
let these facts and these principles be impressed upon the mind of 
the most selfish and worldly man community contains within its 
bosom, and he becomes a practical reformer in the much abused 
and greatly perverted system of Common School Education. 

We are accustomed to complain that, in a great majority of in- 
stances, our primary schools are lamentably inefficient ; that they 
have utterly failed to accomplish the objects for which they were 
designed ; that they have miserably disappointed the hopes and ex- 
pectations which were formed from their introduction and diffu- 
sion broadcast throughout our land. But we forget to ask whence 
arises this deplorable state of things; and, what is still more cul- 
pable, we neglect to inquire whether the remedy is in our power, 
and, if so, what it is. If the husbandman should sow his field, in 
every direction, with the choicest grain, and should thenceforth 
abandon it to its fate, or, at best, look on with a cool indifference 
and neglect to its progress, should we be surprised at the compara- 



INTRODUCTION. » 

live failure and inefficiency of his crop 1 True, the founders of 
our institutions were at immense pains in laying broad and deep 
the foundations of primary instruction 5 and had their descendants 
faithfully and conscientiously cooperated in their enlightened views 
in this respect, and carried up the superstructure in its admirable 
and beautiful proportions, our country would have been advanced 
at least a century in all those intellectual and moral qualifications 
which adorn humanity. But the eager prosecution of wealth, the 
active spirit of speculation, the immense variety of material inter- 
ests necessarily incidental to the developement of the vast resources 
of a rapidly expanding civilization in a mighty hemisphere, hitherto 
comparatively unpeopled, and the diversified combinations resulting 
from the pressing claims of self-interest and personal and political 
ambition ; — all these predominating motives impelled to a course 
of action, and originated and maintained a public sentiment, essen- 
tially independent of the claims of primary education, as that term 
is now beginning to be understood. The common schools, the 
high schools, the academy, the college, and the university, all, 
indeed, existed. Outwardly, their organization was as perfect aa 
circumstances would admit. For successive generations, the great- 
er part of the children of the republic were duly transferred from 
the nursery to the district or free school, thence, at the proper time, 
to the high school and the academy, and finally " finished their 
education " at the college or the university. For all the active and 
practical purposes of life, they were thenceforth deemed abundantly 
prepared. In all this routine, thus universally followed and uni- 
versally countenanced, the two most important and predominating 
divisions of our nature — those which give the hue to the whole 
of future life, and determine its destination — the physical and 
moral attributes, formed no part of the discipline of education, and 
only occasionally entered into it, when, by a fortunate concurrence 
of events, the strong common sense and wholesome training of the 
domestic circle were taken up and carried on in the halls of science. 
The intellectual faculties were, indeed, partially developed 3 but in 
the general absence of sound moral aliment on which to act, the 
higher sentiments were left to take such direction as the propensities 
and appetites might suggest, controlled only by the operations of a 
public sentiment, which, however it might restrain within due 
bounds the grosser and more violent passions, admitted full latitude 
to the play of many of the lower attributes of our nature. In short, 
our systems of popular education, from the lowest to the highest, 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

have been little better than mere systems, beautiful in theory, af- 
fording felicitous subjects for self-gratulation at our public anni- 
versaries, but essentially destitute of that living principle which 
acts upon, and elevates and refines to its greatest possible degree, 
the physical, the intellectual, the moral and religious faculties. 

To remedy this predominant evil, it is, first of all, necessary that 
we should be fully aware not only of its existence, but of its ex- 
tent. If the source is corrupt, we have no right to expect, at any 
stage of progress, those pure and invigorating influences which can 
be the result only of an uncontaminatcd origin. In the vast major- 
ity of instances, the young mind receives its most abiding impres- 
sions from the various influences with which it is immediately 
surrounded ; from its first lessons of man and nature, of intellect 
and morals — lessons not written in sand, and swept away by the 
passing breeze, but deeply and ineradicably engraven upon the 
tablets of memory. There are formed those habits, principles, 
sentiments, and modes of thinking, feeling, and acting, which will 
inevitably characterize the future man. It is of the first impor- 
tance, therefore, to trace these interesting developements as they 
are successively unfolded, and to ascertain under what influences 
they are best drawn out, and in what manner their progressive 
growth may best be secured. 

This has been the object which the author has proposed to 
himself in the following pages ; and, however imperfectly he has 
succeeded, he has, at least, the satisfaction of believing that his 
motives will be appreciated by those for whom he has labored. 
He has sought to direct the attention of the young to considerations 
intimately connected with their physical, moral, and intellectual 
education, and the formation of their character, and to point out 
the facilities, as well as obstacles, to mental culture, which are 
presented by the varying circumstances of their condition in life, 
by the institutions of society, and by public sentiment. If this 
object shall have been accomplished, — if, through his humble 
efforts, a right direction shall have been given to any inquiring 
and ingenuous mind, — his utmost ambition will have been attained. 



MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. 

1. The present state of physical, intellectual, and 
moral science marks one of those grand and distinct 
epochs in the progress of civilization, which are des- 
tined to exert an immense influence upon the fu- 
ture. Its distinguishing aim may, perhaps, be de- 
fined to be, the attainment of a harmonious combi- 
nation and judicious cultivation of all the faculties 
of our nature. Hitherto the physical constitution of 
man, and the influences which are constantly exert- 
ed upon its peculiar organization by the external 
world, have been regarded as the objects of a sepa- 
rate and distinct science, dependent upon principles 
peculiar to itself, and related only incidentally to 
mental or moral manifestation. The intellectual 
powers have, in like manner, been made the basis of 
a philosophy of their own ; and have given rise to 
numerous metaphysical systems, too often abstruse 
in their conceptions, profitless in their details, and 
fruitless in their results. Moral philosophy too has, 
in every age, had its professors, who have vainly 
attempted to sound the depths, compass the nature, 



12 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

and direct the mighty but wayward energies of the 
human soul. In the cultivation of each of these sci- 
ences, separate and distinct from its indissoluble con- 
nection with the others, insuperable obstacles have 
from time to time been presented ; and a clear and 
satisfactory conception of the nature and offices, the 
powers and capabilities of the human mind, consid- 
ered in all its various relations, has never by this 
process been attained. 

2. The most scientific, thorough, and practical 
acquaintance with the physical organization of the 
body, and of the effect produced upon it by exter- 
nal subtances, obviously affords but an incomplete 
means of solution of the diversified phenomena con- 
stantly presented in the constitution of our complex 
nature. In order to arrive at satisfactory results in 
this ample field of inquiry, a knowledge of the va- 
rious influences which the intellectual and moral 
faculties exert upon the physical, and of the effects 
of their combined operations under circumstances 
continually modified and changed by the constantly 
changing surface of human events and individual 
peculiarities of character, is indispensably requisite. 
Nor can the process of intellectual developement and 
expansion be correctly apprehended, or wisely direc- 
ted, without an enlightened appreciation as well of 
the physical organization as of the moral tendencies, 
culture, and character of the individual who is the 
subject of mental discipline. So, too, with the 
teachings of the moralist and the divine. Elevated 
and sublime as is, and ever must be, that science 
which deals with the highest and noblest attributes 
of humanity, it is lamentably true that its progress 
and success has hitherto been in no degree commen- 
surate with its importance. Confining itself to the 
moral and religious nature of man, and rightly assu- 
ming, as its standard of attainment, the capacity of 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. 13 

that nature for indefinite improvement, it has never- 
theless failed to appreciate the ceaseless pressure of 
diversified external circumstances, and the constant 
and powerful modifications of the intellectual and 
moral faculties, which result from physical organiza- 
tion, and the harmonious or discordant play of its 
complicated and delicate mechanism. It has dealt 
too much in vague abstractions and general principles, 
and too little with the world as it really is. The 
strongest convictions of the intellect have often been 
found wholly insufficient to counterpoise the power- 
ful influence of the passions, especially when aided 
by an unfavorable combination of external circum- 
stances. The most incontrovertible principles of 
duty, and the soundest dictates of moral and relig- 
ious truth, are wasted upon that mental soil not pre- 
viously adapted to their reception by the proper 
cultivation and supremacy of the higher senti- 
ments. The infinite diversity of human character — 
the innumerable and depressing physical evils with 
which mankind have always been compelled to 
contend — the various operations of the passions and 
propensities of our common nature, under different 
combinations of circumstances and events — and the 
ceaseless modifications of the vast and complicated 
machinery of society constantly revolving around 
us — should long since have demonstrated the ne- 
cessity of an enlightened appreciation of all the 
various influences, which in the economy of human 
life are brought to bear upon the formation and de- 
velopement of character. No permanent advance- 
ment of the standard of moral virtue, purity, and 
truth can reasonably be expected, but through a 
long and thorough discipline of the whole diversi- 
fied nature of man ; by clearly unfolding the inti- 
mate connection of his duty with his highest in- 
terest as well for time as eternity — of the require- 



14 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

ments of his Creator with his own present and 
prospective happiness — and the proper fulfilment 
of his high destiny, with the harmonious action of 
every faculty of his being. 

3. These principles constitute the foundation of 
the great work of Education : And it is mainly be- 
cause they have not been fully understood, or their 
practical importance correctly estimated, that, com- 
paratively, so little has hitherto been accomplished 
for the elevation and improvement of the race. And 
yet we should be guilty of an unjustifiable presump- 
tion in assuming that an acquaintance with the fun- 
damental powers and faculties of our nature, and 
with the intimate relation, which in their united ac- 
tion they sustain to the external world as well of 
matter as of mind, has not at all times and in all 
ages been accessible to those for whose happiness 
such powers were conferred, and for whose benefit 
such relations exist. It is inconsistent with all our 
conceptions of that wisdom and benevolence, which 
pervades the great scheme of things and the dealings 
of the Creator, to suppose that the observance of cer- 
tain fixed and invariable laws is necessary to the 
well-being of the race, individually and collectively, 
and yet that the means of ascertaining and applying 
those laws have been withheld. Such a conclusion 
would be at variance with all the facts which histo- 
ry, observation, and experience have presented to our 
view. In tracing the progress of civilization through 
its various stages of advancement, one of the most 
remarkable phenomena which presents itself, is 
the slow process by which many of the cardinal 
principles of knowledge have been matured and es- 
tablished. The elementary materials of the physical 
world, from which those innumerable combinations 
of science and the arts, now so familiarly applied, 
were compounded, have at all times existed, and their 



TllE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. 15 

innate properties, powers, and capabilities have been 
uniformly the same; and yet the most important dis- 
coveries and valuable inventions, connected with the 
welfare and progressive improvement of the race, owe 
their origin to a period comparatively recent. The 
same sources of observation which conducted the pen- 
etrating minds of Galileo and Newton to a knowledge 
of the laws which regulate the motions of the heavenly 
bodies had been open to millions of intelligent and 
reflecting beings, since the world began ; and al- 
though numerous systems and countless theories had 
prevailed, a just appreciation of uniform facts and a 
clear conception of their relations and dependencies 
had not been attained. One of the most simple and 
important principles of our animal economy, — the 
circulation of the blood, — remained unknown until 
the commencement of the seventeenth century ; and 
yet the inductions, which led the mind of Harvey to 
its developement were accessible to the observation 
of every scientific mind of the ancient and modern 
world. A similar remark is applicable to the more 
recent discoveries of the nature and functions of the 
nervous system, by that indefatigable scholar and en- 
lightened physiologist, Sir Charles Bell. Four centu- 
ries have not yet elapsed since the discovery of the art 
of printing and the invention of the mariner's compass 
so immeasurably facilitated the spread of knowledge, 
and the annunciation of the existence of a new world 
opened to the minds of men an inexhaustible source 
of social, intellectual, and moral power. The am- 
ple volume of nature has, at all times, been open to 
the study and observation of mankind ; and her in- 
structive lessons have ever been ready abundantly 
to gratify the highest interest of her votaries ; and 
yet the records of human improvement, worthy of 
the name, may be comprised within the limits of a 
few centuries. Indeed after the lapse of nearly six 



16 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

thousand years we can scarcely be said to have pen- 
etrated beyond the vestibule of the great temple 
of knowledge. The essential conditions, however, 
upon which the well-being of the race have been 
dependent, in all ages and under all the diversified 
circumstances in which humanity has ever ex- 
isted, has nevertheless been placed within the 
comprehension of every responsible individual of 
the species. 

4. The present may be regarded as emphatically 
the age of improvement — of progress — of advance- 
ment in physical, intellectual, and especially in moral 
science. The human mind, diverted for a season 
from the destructive and degrading physical contests 
waged by ambition, pride and passion for supremacy 
and power, has passed by a rapid transition through 
the wide circle of the arts and sciences to a system- 
atic and enlightened examination of its own intrinsic 
nature, capacities, wants, and destination. From its 
comprehensive survey of the external universe, its 
analysis of the properties of matter, its combinations 
of the innumerable substances of the material world, 
and its subjection of the physical powers of nature 
to the various purposes of an advancing civilization 
— it has ascended to the great source of all knowl- 
edge and all power, and traced its own derivation 
from the spirit of the universe — its innate capabili- 
ties — its progressive expansion — its boundless aspira- 
tions, and its immortality. From a survey of its own 
history, in all the diversified forms of its develope- 
ment from the dawn of ancient civilization through 
the thick mists of ignorance, superstition and error to 
the present advanced condition of society, it is 
beginning to deduce those great elementary truths 
which lie at the foundation of a wise and en- 
lightened philosophy — truths originally implanted by 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. 17 

the Creator on its uncorrupted tablets; truths asser- 
ted and re-asserted in every age of its experience by 
the few who were capable of discerning, through the 
surrounding darkness, the imperishable landmarks of 
humanity ; truths yet destined to regenerate the race, 
and render it worthy of its divine origin and na- 
ture. 

5. The communication of a knowledge of these 
truths in their simplicity and purity to the rising gen- 
eration, in such a manner as to enable them intelli- 
gently to appreciate and rightly to apply them to all 
the practical purposes of life and to the promotion of 
the true end of their being, is the great object of ed- 
ucation. Rightly comprehending the primal source 
of all the wretchedness and desolation which have 
withered the energies and blighted the hopes of man- 
kind, the christian, the patriot, the philanthropist, and 
the statesman now propose to purify the stream at 
its fountain ; to rescue the beautiful innocence of 
childhood from contamination ; early to instruct the 
intellect and strengthen the principles of those, who 
in their turn are to carry forward the destinies of hu- 
manity; carefully to remove those fatal obstacles, up- 
on which the fondest hopes and most flattering an- 
ticipations have so often and so calamitously been 
wrecked; and earnestly and efficiently to apply them- 
selves to the wide dissemination of those enduring 
truths of civilization and Christianity, which alone can 
enable man to resume his appropriate station as the 
intelligent and responsible recipient and dispenser of 
knowledge, virtue, and happiness. It must, however, 
constantly be borne in mind that it is upon the ability 
and the disposition wisely and judiciously to profit 
by this knowledge, and to render it available to the 
great purposes of rational existence, rather than upon 
the extent or comprehensiveness of the knowledge 
2 



18 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

itself, however accurate, that our attainments in the 
true philosophy of life must essentially depend. 

6. To him who rightly appreciates the intrinsic 
value, the vast capabilities and high destination of 
the human mind, no consideration can be more sol- 
emn or momentous than that of the responsibility in- 
volved in its constitution. We are, indeed, ' fearful- 
ly and wonderfully made' — not alone with reference 
to our merely physical organization, complicated and 
perfect as we know that crowning workmanship of 
the Almighty hand to be — but chiefly and more es- 
pecially in that inexplicable and mysterious union of 
mind and matter which connects our animal frame 
with the spirit of the universe — elevates us in the 
magnificent scale of creative wisdom to a station ' a 
little lower than the angels' — and calls upon us to as- 
pire to that perfection of character which alone can 
enable us to fulfil the objects of our existence. Nor 
is this high responsibility thus devolved upon us, in 
any degree lessened, or its requisitions modified, by 
the general prevalence of degenerate views and er- 
roneous conceptions of our origin, duties and desti- 
nation — by the disturbing influences which surround 
us on every hand, or the manifold temptations which 
encompass our progress, and constantly urge us to 
diverge from the narrow path of truth and duty. 
The standard of rectitude is imperishable and eter- 
nal. It varies not with the incessant vicissitudes of 
erring humanity ; and wherever a human being ex- 
ists, conformity to its requirements is absolutely es- 
sential to happiness and permanent well-being. Rea- 
son and revelation combine to assure us that in the 
bestowment of the inappreciable boon of humanity, 
the Creator designed to confer upon us as its legit- 
imate end, the highest degree of happiness and en- 
joyment of which our nature is susceptible. Our 
physical structure in all its parts is admirably adap- 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. 19 

ted to the entire constitution of our being ; and the 
highest effort of human wisdom is inadequate to the 
execution, or even the conception of the slightest im- 
provement in the exquisite mechanism of those or- 
ganic functions, from the harmonious play of which 
we derive the abiding consciousness and the full en- 
joyment of our animal existence. The same perfection 
of organic structure pervades the infinite and incom- 
prehensible variety of animal life, throughout every 
portion of the universe within the scope of our most 
extended observation. All the orders of being be- 
low humanity accomplish unerringly the specific 
objects for which they were designed. It is from 
those attributes alone, which constitute our proper 
humanity, that we derive the fearful power of trans- 
gression; and with it that responsibility for the appro- 
priate exercise of our intellectual and moral faculties, 
which necessarily results from the relation of the 
creature to the Creator. 

7. All degrees of animal and vegetable life below 
humanity, are created originally perfect ; with pow- 
ers, faculties and instincts adapted to the peculiar 
scale of being they are destined to occupy — neither 
requiring nor admitting cultivation — and incapable 
by the very constitution of their nature of transcen- 
ding or violating in any essential respect the funda- 
mental conditions of their existence. Man alone of 
all the inhabitants of our planet, is created with the 
power of improving indefinitely his condition — of 
transgressing by a voluntary effort of his will, the 
laws of his being, and of counteracting, if we may 
be allowed to use the expression, so far as he himself 
is concerned, the benevolent design of his Creator, 
in the bestowment of the high privilege of an intel- 
ligent existence. With him alone the work of edu- 
cation and the formation of character commences in 
early infancy, and is susceptible of continued pro- 



20 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

gress through all the subsequent stages of life. He 
alone possesses that indestructible germ of being 
which we term the soul or spirit — the badge of his 
proper humanity — the pledge of his immortality — 
the distinctive characteristic of his high nature. The 
external avenues of communication with the world 
of matter and of mind are possessed by him in com- 
mon with the inferior animals. The rays of light 
are conveyed to them, as to him, through the medi- 
um of the eye : the vibrations of the air which con- 
stitute sound, are communicated through the same 
organs of hearing : the same faculties of touch, of 
taste and of smell, are conferred upon them by an 
organization substantially similar to his own ; and 
each of these senses are possessed by various species 
of the animal creation in greater perfection, and with 
a more extended scope of action than by him. Most, 
if not all the perceptive faculties — those which take 
cognizance of the forms, hues, dimensions and local- 
ities of external nature — which discover and discern 
existences — note events as they occur — recall im- 
pressions and furnish the various materials for the 
exercise of reason and judgment in man, are pos- 
sessed by the brutes ; and in them their various 
functions are regulated by an unerring instinct. 

8. As the animal organization approaches in com- 
plexity and perfection to the human, the sphere of in- 
tellectual action is proportionally expanded, and the 
range of the propensities and affective emotions, with 
which it is also endowed, elevated and enlarged. 
These propensities and emotions likewise correspond 
in a considerable degree to those of man. It is the 
same animal instinct in both which prompts to anger, 
violence, strife and carnage : the same in both which 
incites to deception, concealment and theft : the same 
in both which induces a disregard of the interests 
and feelings of others, and a concentration of every 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. 21 

energy upon self: the same in both which impels to 
covetousness and cunning, — in short, the same in 
both, which in its unregulated and unrestrained ac- 
tion has emphatically 

' Brought death into the world, and all our woe.' 

In the brute creation these propensities subserve a 
wise and specific purpose : they are restrained within 
impassable bounds : and their exercise constitutes the 
ultimate end and the greatest happiness of their pos- 
sessors. Upon man too, these propensities were con- 
ferred by Omniscient Wisdom for the attainment of 
beneficial ends : but upon him was bestowed a higher 
and nobler order of. faculties to which they were de- 
signed to be subservient, and by which they were 
intended to be restrained ; and that impassable bar- 
rier which renders transgression and its fatal conse- 
quences physically impossible to the brute, finds no 
place in his mental or moral organization. The high- 
er attributes of his being- — the capacity to reason and 
to decide by an intelligent appreciation and compar- 
ison of conflicting motives, objects, ends and aims — 
the power of widening the sphere and dispersing the 
mists of his intellectual vision — and of so disciplin- 
ing his moral sense as to render his conduct practi- 
cally subservient to the will of his Creator, and in 
harmonious accordance with the design of his exis- 
tence — these belong to man alone: and their exercise 
to a greater or less extent, or their total neglect, and 
the abandonment of the reins of intellect, judgment 
and conscience to the guidance of the passions, and 
the impulse of circumstance, determine the character 
and shape the destiny of each individual of the hu- 
man family. 

9. In this power, resulting from the union of the 
spiritual and material portions of our being, and in 
the consequent responsibility which its exercise in- 



22 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

volves, consists the highest and noblest attribute of 
humanity. The intellectual and moral facuhies of 
our nature cannot assume and retain a stationary po- 
sition. There is no mental equilibrium, in which 
knowledge, and the various passions and emotions 
can rest, undisturbed by any impulse or preponder- 
ance from without or within. In the cultivation and 
discipline of our mind, in all its complicated rela- 
tions, we must continually advance, or we shall be 
irresistibly compelled to recede. We have no alter- 
native, other than a progress in virtue, in knowledge 
and in goodness, on the one hand, and a failure on 
the other, not only to accomplish that full measure ot 
happiness and enjoyment designed by the Creator in 
our formation, but in any considerable degree to ap- 
prehend the end and object of existence itself, or to 
avoid the innumerable calamities physical and moral, 
incidental to ignorance and error. In what manner 
then, may we best discipline our whole nature, so as 
to accomplish to the greatest practicable extent the 
will of our Creator — fulfil the objects and purposes 
of our being — cultivate and develope the various fac- 
ulties of our mind — and fit ourselves for usefulness 
and enjoyment in the circumstances which surround 
us, and the respective stations in which it may be our 
fortune to be placed ? 



PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND MORAL CULTURE. 23 



CHAPTER II. 

. PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND MORAL CULTURE. 

1, In our endeavors to ascertain the true mode of 
developing the powers and faculties of the mind, 
with a view to a systematic education of the whole 
of our compound nature, it is first of all necessary to 
acquaint ourselves with the fundamental principles 
of that nature. On no subject has a greater diver- 
sity of opinion prevailed, than on that of the nature 
and essence of the human mind; and on no subject, 
certainly, have the materials for observation been 
more ample and abundant. In addition to the con» 
sciousness which each intelligent individual possess 
ses, of the operation- of his own mind, a vast field 
of instruction is daily presented in the conduct and 
character of others, and an inexhaustible repository 
of facts illustrative of this great subject exists in the 
annals of history. And yet if we may, even now, 
be permitted to congratulate ourselves upon the pos- 
session of an enlightened and practical philosophy 
of the mind, the period is quite recent since a thor- 
ough analysis of its various faculties, and a satisfac- 
tory elucidation of its nature and powers, ceased to 
be a desideratum in the acquisitions of science. 
Metaphysicians, it is true, have abounded in every 
age ; and as intelligence and civilization have ad- 
vanced, a perceptible progress has been made in psy- 
chological inquiries ; while the frequent revolutions 
which the opinions of scientific men have undergone, 
and the varying and even opposite standards which 
have from time to time prevailed, have afforded the 
most conclusive evidence, that the solid foundations 



24 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

of truth and nature were yet to be reached. In the 
expressive language of De Bonald, an author whose 
views on this subject are cited with approbation by 
Dugald Stewart at the close of the eighteenth centu- 
ry, ' diversity of doctrine has increased from age to 
age, with the number of masters, and with the pro- 
gress of knowledge ; and Europe, which at present 
possesses libraries filled with philosophical works, 
and which reckons up almost as many philosophers 
as writers — poor in the midst of so much riches — 
and uncertain, in the midst of all its guides, which 
road it should follow — Europe, the centre and focus 
of all the lights of the world, has yet its philosophy 
only in expectation.' 

2. Independently of revelation, we can form no 
accurate conception of the abstract nature and es- 
sence of the human mind. The various speculations 
on this subject, in which men in all ages have allow- 
ed themselves to indulge, have subserved no other 
profitable end than to demonstrate the utter inability 
of the profoundest intellect to solve the deep problem 
of its own existence. While we recognise the pres- 
ence and operation of intellectual and moral faculties 
elevating us in the scale of creation immeasurably 
above the purely animal orders of existence, the ut- 
most exertion of those faculties, unaided by inspira- 
tion, can neither communicate to us any definite con- 
ception of their origin, nor inform us of their peculiar 
nature, distinct from the material organization with 
which, in this life, we find them connected. It is 
only by observing and noting their manifestation in 
various individuals and under every combination of 
external circumstances, and by carefully discrimin- 
ating between fundamental powers, dispositions and 
propensities, and their diversified modifications in 
conduct and character, that we can hope to attain to 
accurate results in the investigation of the numerous 



PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND MORAL CULTURE. 25 

mental phenomena presented to our view. We shall 
best consult the dictates of a sound philosophy by 
confining our researches to facts presented by the 
history of the race, or open to general observation, 
instead of wandering into those obscure regions of 
metaphysical subtlety which bewilder the intellect, 
without cither enlightening the understanding or 
convincing the judgment. 

3. Whatever may be the nature or essence, the ori- 
gin or destination of the human mind, the Creator has 
seen fit to assign the body as its earthly residence. 
Whether we term it soul or spirit — the heart or the 
mind — reason, thought, intellect, understanding, con- 
science or will — it can manifest itself in our present 
state of existence, only through the agency of materi- 
al organs. Christianity, indeed, enables us to anti- 
cipate the final triumph of mind over matter, and to 
expect the emancipation of our higher nature from 
the grosser elements which now repress and fetter 
its immortal energies. But the dark portals of the 
tomb must first be passed. Here, the connection 
which Infinite Wisdom has established between phys- 
ical organization and mental developement is, in its 
very nature, indissoluble ; and the elements of our 
being are so intermingled, that the purely material 
portion of our nature exerts a constant and powerful 
influence over that which, in itself, is purely imma- 
terial and spiritual. When the one, either in con- 
sequence of a violation of its organic laws, or by 
gradual decay and dissolution becomes no longer 
capable of discharging its functions in accordance 
with the constitution of its nature, the other ceases, 
to all human observation, its accustomed operations, 
and suspends its powers. 

4. There is no condition of humanity in which 
the mind can manifest itself independently of the 

3 



26 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

body ; nor is there any wherein a derangement of the 
physical structure of the brain, the acknowledged 
seat of reason, intellect, and thought, does not affect, 
in precise proportion to the extent and magnitude of 
the injury, the moral and intellectual faculties of the 
mind. We are not at liberty, therefore, in our in- 
vestigations respecting what we deem the nobler 
portion of our common nature, to separate those 
mysterious but harmonious elements which God 
himself has joined. In the vain and fruitless at- 
tempt to effect this divorce, the strongest intellects 
have found themselves bewildered amid the tangled, 
mazes of a philosophy which has sought by earnest 
contemplation of an isolated part of ' one stupendous 
whole ' to extract a system of ethics adapted to the 
great purposes of human life. Rather let us study 
the laws of our being, where alone the knowledge is 
to be attained, from a contemplation of our whole 
nature, and from the unerring dictates of Revelation, 
whether transmitted to us by the direct interposition 
of the Deity, through the record of our common faith, 
or communicated in the thousand voices which speak 
to us daily and hourly from the manifold works of 
creative wisdom, goodness and power. The body, 
equally with the soul, is the product of the Divine 
hand. It came from its Creator, the perfect and fit 
temple of its godlike inhabitant — exquisitely adapted 
in its most minute details, as well as in the general 
result of its structure to the communication and dif- 
fusion of enjoyment ; and it is only from our igno- 
rance of its true nature, and our repeated and con- 
tinued departures from the laws impressed upon its 
constitution, that the discordant play of its organs 
becomes the fertile source of suffering, disorder and 
pain : — 

' Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.' 



PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND MORAL CULTURE. 27 

5. An early and intelligent acquaintance with 
the constitution, structure and functions of the hu- 
man frame ; the laws in obedience to which only, 
health may be preserved and secured, and the mind 
enabled to accomplish its noble mission, undepressed 
by the disheartening influences of debility, disease 
and pain ; the organic functions of the various mus- 
cles, bones, nerves, vessels and ligatures which are 
distributed throughout the body, and the principles 
in conformity to which the action of each and the 
combined operations of all are regulated — is indispen- 
sable to an enlightened developement and judicious 
cultivation of our whole nature. The able and 
accomplished Secretary of the Board of Education of 
Massachusetts, the Hon. Horace Mann, in his Sixth 
Annual Report, has accumulated a mass of facts 
bearing upon this important and elementary process 
of education, and has enforced its claims to a more 
general and universal adoption in all our seminaries 
of public and private instruction, with an eloquence, 
a beauty and a truth, which cannot fail to carry con- 
viction to every intelligent mind. ' The laws of 
health and life,' observes this distinguished advocate 
of Popular Education, and of the best interests of 
humanity, ' are comparatively few and simple. Ev- 
ery person is capable of understanding them. Every 
child in the State before arriving at the age of eigh- 
teen years might acquire a competent knoAvledge of 
them, and of the reasons on which they are founded. 
The profession of medicine, on the other hand, is 
mainly conversant with the laws of disease. It is 
these which are so numberless and complex as to 
defy the profoundest talent, and the study of the 
longest and most assiduous life for their thorough 
comprehension. Every difference of climate, of oc- 
cupation, of personal constitution and habits, modifies 
their character, multiplies their number and perplexes 



23 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

their intricacy. Human Physiology, or the science 
of health and life, may be written in one book ; for 
Pathology, or the science of disease, thousands and 
ten thousands of books have been written, and yet 
the subject seems at the present time to be hardly 
nearer exhaustion than in the age of Galen or Hip- 
pocrates.' A proper regard to the quantity and 
quality of diet, of clothing, of air, and exercise ; a 
scrupulous attention to cleanliness ; a temperate and 
discriminating use of all the blessings of Providence, 
whether conferred upon us for the sustenance and 
support of animal life, or for the varied purposes of 
social intercourse and moral and intellectual pro- 
gress ; and an intelligent appreciation of the diversi- 
fied effects of temperature, climate, and atmospheric 
changes upon different constitutions, and at different 
periods of life, would unquestionably prove eminently 
conducive to longevity, — add to the capacity of the 
human race for happiness and enjoyment, — advance 
the standard of mental and moral improvement, — and 
mitigate essentially, if it did not ultimately eradicate, 
the numerous and harassing physical ills ' which 
flesh is heir to.' That this important branch of 
mental culture has so long been almost entirely 
overlooked, not only in our systems of education, but 
in the speculations of philosophy and the exhortations 
of the pulpit, argues an inexplicable blindness to the 
cardinal interests of human knowledge, and a strange 
infatuation, which in its zeal for the promotion of 
ulterior objects has neglected the first and most ob- 
vious means for their successful accomplishment. 
The dark catalogue of mortality, and the annals of 
human suffering, wretchedness and misery, have 
been fearfully enhanced by the prevailing ignorance 
of the simple and intelligible principles of physiolog- 
ical science ; and what is still more lamentable, the 
ravages of death and the apparently undiscriminating 



PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, xlND MORAL CULTURE. 29 

visitations of calamity and affliction, have originated 
and sustained the most erroneous and pernicious 
theories of the moral government of that over-ruling 
Providence, who 'doth not afflict willingly nor grieve 
the children of men,' and whose ' chastenings, though 
for the present not joyous but grievous, afterward 
yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness to those 
who are exercised thereby.' We may develop to a 
preternatural activity the intellectual faculties of our 
children ; and by a species of hot-house discipline be 
able to exhibit to the wondering gaze of our friends, 
youthful prodigies of genius and talent. But the 
bitter experience of many an agonized and bereaved 
parent has demonstrated that triumphs like these are 
too evanescent and too dearly bought. Exhausted 
nature soon asserts its supremacy, and vindicates its 
violated laws. The over-tasked brain gives way be- 
fore the unnatural supply of nervous energy which 
has been forced to it, and a premature grave claims 
the victim of a misdirected education. Instead of in- 
couragi ng, it is obviously the part of true wisdom 
studiously to repress the undue manifestations of in- 
tellectual power, at an age when the physical organs 
have not yet attained that consistency, strength, dur- 
ability and harmony, which alone can fit them for 
cooperating with the mind. The foundations of 
education, to be permanent and durable, must consist 
in a systematic, thorough and judicious invigoratioa 
of the physical constitution. We may not, it is true, 
by the most strict conformity to the organic laws, be 
able wholly to avert the ravages of disease, or to 
obtain an entire exemption from the physical ills 
incident to humanity. Were we even at liberty to 
conceive of such an advancement in knowledge and 
science, at any future period of the race, as should 
enable us to cope with pestilence in its multiform 
and desolating influences, to grapple with and over- 



30 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

come those innumerable diseases which now steal 
upon us when least expected, and against which no 
human skill or prescience can avail — that period is 
undoubtedly far remote. There are disturbing in- 
fluences in the air we breathe— in the earth upon 
which we tread — in all the elements, in short, which 
surround us — there are disturbing influences in the 
very blood which courses through our veins, and in 
the constitution of our physical and mental organs, 
which no human power known to us can wholly 
neutralize or command. But it is much, very much, 
to know and to understand the fixed laws impressed 
upon our nature by the hand of Omnipotent wisdom 
and benevolence ; to be able, so far as in us lies, to 
guard against their infringment, to carry out their 
design, and thus secure a comparative exemption 
from those debilitating influences which make up so 
great a portion of the cup of human wretchedness. 
It is much to understand and appreciate the intimate 
connection between bodily health and mental efficien- 
cy — a connection which has been too long and too 
systematically disregarded. It is much to be able to 
dissipate the deplorable ignorance which has consign- 
ed to a premature grave so many highly gifted minds 
upon whom the fondest hopes of the domestic and 
social circle hung, and around whom clustered the 
most sanguine anticipations for the future. It is 
much to substitute for the forbidding and destructive 
system of precocious mental culture with which we 
have heretofore been so generally met at the very 
portals of knowledge and education, the pleasing and 
unrestrained exercise of those muscular functions, 
whose activity in the spring time of life, it is impos- 
sible wholly to repress, and the gratification of that 
insatiable thirst for instruction and information so 
apparent in the young mind, by the observation of 
the countless phenomena of nature. 



PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND MORAL CULTURE. 31 

For a more full and satisfactory exposition of this 
important and indispensable branch of elementary- 
education, we must refer the inquirer, in addition to 
the valuable report to which we have already allud- 
ed, to the admirable works of the Messrs. Combe of 
Edinburgh, which have obtained so high a reputa- 
tation, and which have contributed, probably more 
than any other publications on this subject, to a 
general diffusion of the fundamental principles of 
sound physiological, as well as mental and moral 
science. The masterly treatises of George Combe 
on the ' Constitution of Man,' and on ' Moral Philos- 
ophy,' and the no less able work of Andrew Combe 
on the ' Principles of Physiology applied to the 
Preservation of Health and to the Improvement of 
Physical and Mental Education,' can scarcely be too 
highly commended to the students and the instruc- 
tors of our common schools and higher institutions 
of learning, and to the attentive perusal of every 
individual who desires to become acquainted with 
the capacities and the laws of his being. No system 
of education can be perfect which is not based upon 
an enlightened knowledge of the science — for science 
it may well be called — which is discussed in these 
attractive publications. None is worthy of the name 
which does not keep its great truths constantly in 
view ; and no philanthropist, no friend to humanity, 
and no individual who desires to ameliorate and to 
elevate the physical, the mental and moral condition 
of the race, will withhold his influence and exertions 
to disseminate these principles far and wide. Igno- 
rance of the elementary principles which reg~ulate 
the physical well-being of our common nature is no 
longer excusable in those who undertake the task of 
instruction ; and especially is it the duty, no less than 
the interest of parents, to familiarize themselves with 
a subject, a correct knowledge of which is of such 



32 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

surpassing importance to the happiness and welfare 
of those to whom, as they have given them existence, 
so they are bound to render that existence, so far as 
in them lies, a source of enjoyment, advancement 
and mental purity. The rapid progress of physio- 
logical science, and the more general diffusion of 
enlightened views upon the reciprocal influences of 
the physical and mental portions of our nature, have 
thus placed at the command of all, the means of that 
intelligent and habitual conformity to the conditions 
of health, which shall fully realize the desirable com- 
bination of ' a sound mind in a sound body.' The 
wondrous and complicated adaptation of the ' temple 
of the soul ' to the various purposes, physical, intel- 
lectual and moral, which its Great Architect designed 
it to subserve, surely affords one of the grandest and 
most exalted, as well as interesting themes for study 
and reflection. 

6. We proceed to the higher and more compre- 
hensive domain of the mind itself, the fundamental 
faculties of which have, by the general consent of 
metaphysicians and psychologists, been classed into 
two principal divisions, distinguished as the intellec- 
tual and the moral. To the former have been assign- 
ed the functions of gathering from the external world 
of matter and of mind, the various stores of knowl- 
edge — analyzing, classifying and arranging the trea- 
sures of science and experience, and placing them at 
the disposal of the judgment and the will ; while to 
the latter have been assigned, on the one hand, those 
higher and nobler sentiments, which, in their legiti- 
mate action, aided by the clear light of the unclouded 
intellect, fulfil the moral law of the Creator and 
delight to know and to do his will ; and on the other 
the lower passions and propensities, each having its 
appropriate and beneficial function in the economy 
of being, but liable to be perverted from its proper 



PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND MORAL CULTURE. 33 

sphere, and when so perverted, endowed with a 
fearful power for evil. 

7. In order to a proper appreciation of truth, 
whether with reference to the phenomena of the 
external world, or to those complicated operations 
of thought, feeling and passion, which shape the 
character and round the destiny of every human 
being, the intellect must be enlightened. Its culti- 
vation accordingly, is not only a duty, but speedily 
becomes a pleasure. To those accustomed to the 
indulgence of literary and scientific pursuits, it is 
often a luxury, compared with which the most at- 
tractive allurements of the senses sink into insignifi- 
cance. That is indeed a noble and a glorious prerog- 
ative, which enables us to accumulate and appropri- 
ate the rich stores of ancient and modern wisdom ; 
to travel back to the primeval annals of mankind, 
and trace the varying fortunes of the race from its 
incipient efforts at civilization, through the labyrinths 
of ignorance, error, delusion, crime and suffering ; to 
follow the progress of invention and discovery in the 
arts and sciences ; to accompany the great, the 
good, the learned, and the wise, in their sacrifices, 
their exertions, their trials, and their triumphs ; to 
explore the arcana of the universe — evolve its sub- 
lime and yet simple laws — compass its immensity 
and analyze its elementary particles of matter ; to 
enjoy the ever present and delightful converse of 
those sages of thought and prophets of humanity, to 
whom, from time to time, in the long lapse of ages, 
it has been given to be the interpreters and oracles 
of the race, the harbingers of its advancement and 
the historians of its progress. Nor is this preroga- 
tive longer restricted to a favored few, or peculiar to 
any rank or condition of life. It exists alike in the 
palace and the cottage ; and like the free sun and air 
is accessible to all degrees and all stations wherever 



34 MENTAL AND MOKAL CULTURE. 

the light of civilization is diffused. But although its 
judicious exercise is indispensable to an enlightened 
and comprehensive cultivation of the mind, there are 
a variety of considerations by which the acquisition 
of knowledge, either for its own sake, or in view of 
its immediate or contingent advantages is to be re- 
strained, modified and directed. While the intellect 
should early be trained to a proper appreciation of its 
powers, and to a readiness, facility and skill in their 
use*, adequate to all the vicissitudes of life, its ener- 
gies should not be permitted to waste their freshness 
and vigor in the unbounded domains of the imag- 
ination — in unprofitable searches for those recondite 
treasures of knowledge, inapplicable to the practical 
purposes or pursuits of life, or in vague and aimless 
wanderings over those inviting fields of literary 
verdure which stretch out in boundless perspective 
wherever the fertile seeds of Genius have been scat- 
tered, or its exuberant fruits have been matured. 
' Utility ' should be inscribed upon the portals of the 
lofty temple of Intellectual Culture ; and an intelli- 
gent design, and a constant and pervading reference 
to the elaboration and growth of character should 
ever be kept in view. The attainment of valuable 
and substantial knowledge must be effected, not by 
a passive reception of the ideas and sentiments of 
others, but by mastering not only the results of 
thorough exploration in the regions of literature and 
science, but the means by which those results were 
accomplished, and the principles from whence they 
were deduced. We may, indeed, and must, avail 
ourselves of the observation and experience of those 
who have preceded us in the various regions of in- 
quiry ; but to do so effectually, wisely and well, we 
must render their knowledge and experience our 
own, by analyzing the process by which it was de- 
rived, and subjecting its results to the crucible of our 



PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND MORAL CULTURE. 35 

own mental organization. The rapid and unprece- 
dented accumulation of publications whieh distin- 
guishes the present day, embracing - every subject of 
thought, inquiry and imagination, increases in a very 
great degree the danger to be apprehended from an 
indiscriminating and unappropriating intellectual 
culture, if culture it may be called. The rich fruits 
of knowledge will inevitably be prevented from the 
attainment of a seasonable maturity, by the unchecked 
prevalence of those noxious weeds with which their 
germs are encompassed. The native strength and 
fertility of the soil, may perhaps ultimately enable it 
to neutralise and overcome these formidable influ- 
ences, and to yield an abundant and profitable har- 
vest ; but an important portion of its luxuriance will 
nevertheless have been expended in the nourishment 
of useless and hurtful tares. 

S. The great and radical error of all our systems 
of intellectual culture, undoubtedly consists in the 
practical assumption that the mere acquisition of 
knowledge is the grand panacea for all the evils of 
ignorance and error. A wall of separation has too 
often been built up between the intellect and the 
heart ; and while the one has been consigned to the 
educator to be polished, refined and strengthened, the 
other has been left exposed to the chilling influences 
of the world, to assume whatever hue, circumstances 
and inclination ma} r chance to give it. As life ad- 
vances, this unnatural barrier is levelled by the 
storms of passion and the tempests of adverse for- 
tune ; and in the conflict which ensues, the victory 
is seldom long in suspense ; and the blooming and 
graceful flowers of genius and fancy and taste are 
either crushed at once, or reserved to grace the tri- 
umphal car of the passions. All experience has 
demonstrated that the intellect is to a very great 
extent the minister of the heart ; ready to act in 



36 MF.N'TAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

prompt subserviency to the dictates of the will, and 
the prevailing impulse of the affective emotions, from 
whatsoever motive these dictates and impulses may 
emanate. If ' from the heart proceed evil thoughts ' 
and all the long array of vices and crimes which 
degrade and brutalize humanity, the resources of the 
intellect will be exhausted in devising the most effi- 
cient means for their consummation and for exemp- 
tion from their consequences. If 'vaulting ambition,' 
blind to the desolating results of its reckless career — 
heedless of the misery which it inflicts and induces 
— and attentive only to the accomplishment of its 
far-reaching designs of personal aggrandizement and 
power, tramples alike upon conscience, religion, jus- 
tice and mercy, — the intellectual powers explore their 
wide domain for materials wherewith to decorate the 
altar, and strengthen and perpetuate the dominion of 
this usurper of the moral empire of the soul. If 
avarice wields the truncheon of the heart, the knowl- 
edge acquired from the vast store-house of ancient 
lore and modern research, will be concentrated in the 
accumulation of congenial food for grasping selfish-" 
ness and greedy appropriation. If demoniac revenge 
and vindictive cruelty predominate in the moral king- 
dom, intellect devises the opportunity and the means — 
removes every intervening obstacle — and directs the 
way to vengeance, oppression, terror and devastation, 
On the other hand, when benevolence, justice, mercy 
and truth sit enthroned in the heart — when the dark- 
er passions no longer venture to renew the conflict 
with the soul — when each appetite and propensity 
has attained the limits beyond which it is not permit- 
ted to pass — the intellectual powers shine forth with 
a hallowed and resplendent radiance, expanding the 
circle of those exalted virtues which form the conge- 
nial atmosphere of the higher nature. 



PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND MORAL CULTURE. 37 

9. The paramount importance, therefore, of a 
thorough and enlightened discipline of the moral 
nature, having for its object the entire subjugation of 
the passions and propensities, to the supremacy of 
the conscience, the reason and the unperverted judg- 
ment, cannot fail to be at once perceived and univer- 
sally recognized and admitted. Were our being 
higher in degree only, but not differing in kind from 
that of the animal creation, its perfection might be 
sought and attained in the cultivation of the physical 
nature. Were our existence comprised within the 
brief limits assigned to humanity in the present 
world, we might, perhaps, find our highest wisdom 
in augmenting and mastering the treasures of knowl- 
edge transmitted to us from the successive genera- 
tions which have peopled the earth, and might ac- 
complish the ends of our being, by the perfection and 
skilful exercise of our intellectual powers. But 
conscious as we are of the possession of various 
faculties, in common with the numerous orders of 
organic existence below our species, we are equally 
conscious that we occupy a higher scale in the econ- 
omy of being ; that the material and physical struc- 
ture of our bodies and the wonderful faculties of our 
mind, are adapted to and designed for the accom- 
plishment of objects which are to survive the frail 
and perishable tenement in which and by means of 
which, they are now conducted and matured. While 
we recognize the perpetual presence of a principle 
implanted in our nature which prompts us to the 
acquisition of knowledge, and to those incessant 
combinations of intellectual perceptions which en- 
able us to range uncontrolled over the illimitable 
universe, we, at the same time, find ourselves sur- 
rounded by interests and relations, responsibilities 
and dependences, involving the interest and the 
welfare of our fellow beings, which demand of us, 



38 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

at every advancing step of our progress, the perform- 
ance of active and passive duties, serious and dis- 
passionate reflection, cautious discrimination, sound 
judgment, and prompt determination between con- 
flicting motives. Intimations, too, of the future, 
strengthening and gathering force and consistency 
as we advance in the journey of life and approach 
the confines of eternity — dim conceptions of the 
solemn grandeur of that destiny which is so soon 
and so surely to open upon us, and of the vast capac- 
ities of that nature, whose imperfect rudiments we 
are now painfully struggling to evolve — proclaim the 
insufficiency of mere knowledge to fulfil the requi- 
sitions of humanity. 

10. There are moments in the life of every man, 
whatever may be his intellectual, social or moral 
condition, when the great problem of Existence is 
deeply and seriously pondered. Whence are we ? 
Of what are the wonderful and mysterious elements 
which constitute thought, reason, and understanding, 
composed ? Why are we here, and for what pur- 
pose ? and what is to be our destination when, with 
the countless myriads of intelligent beings who have 
preceded us, we pass that fearful barrier beyond 
which mortal vision has never penetrated ? From 
whence proceed the moral and physical evils with 
which we are surrounded ? and why are they per- 
mitted in a world, where but for iheir prevailing in- 
fluences, the animate and inanimate creation conspire 
to realize the perfection of omnipotent benevolence 
and wisdom ? Are these evils a necessary part of 
the great scheme of things— inseparable from our 
condition — beyond our control — incapable of any 
essential modification by any exertions of ours ? or 
are they the natural and inevitable results of succes- 
sive violations of the original and established laws of 
our being — the consequences of ignorance or guilt 



PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND MORAL CULTURE. 39 

on our part — and therefore susceptible of mitigation 
at least, if not of final and complete eradication ? 
May we look forward to the ultimate realization, in 
the advancing progress of the race, of those bright 
visions of philanthropists which point to the perfec- 
tion of man's physical, intellectual, and moral nature, 
and to his consequent enjoyment of the full measure 
of happiness of which that nature is suceptible ? 

11. It is undoubtedly for the attainment of these 
high ends that we are created — that thought and 
reason were conferred upon vis — and that all the won- 
derful and complicated machinery of our physical 
nature was constructed in perfect harmony with 
those higher and nobler attributes which separate us 
from the animal creation. The solemn records of 
revelation combine with the irresistible promptings 
of nature with her thousand voices from without, 
and the assurances of the faithful monitor within, to 
fasten upon us the great truth, that here — be our 
earthly career longer or shorter — happy or miserable 
— whether we have known and performed our duty, 
or haply failed to perceive it and groped our devious 
way in ignorance and doubt and error — to how much 
soever we may have attained in intellectual or moral 
excellence — or how little progress we may have 
made in the knowledge of the elementary principles 
of our nature — our existence is yet in the first feeble 
stages of its infancy. Here and there, in the lapse 
of ages we are permitted to witness partial develope- 
ments of the capacity of humanity, even here — of the 
sublimity and grandeur to which the moral and in- 
tellectual faculties may aspire. ' Like angel's visits, 
few and far between,' men have appeared, whose 
lives have signally and beautifully illustrated the 
purest and most exalted virtues in the midst of cir- 
cumstances the most gloomy and discouraging. Up- 
on each and every member of the human family is 



40 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

conferred the same godlike nature ; and however re- 
stricted may now be its field of action — however dim 
and feeble its manifestations under the inexplicable 
modifications of that organization which constitutes 
life — however perverted from its original destination 
by the variable and powerful pressure of external 
circumstances — we are not permitted to doubt that it 
will ultimately fulfil its destiny and assume its ap- 
propriate place in the great scheme of creative wis- 
dom and benevolence. 

12. To attain, then, to a true conception of ' our 
** being's end and aim ' — to reach that high eminence 
of mental culture from whence we can calmly survey 
the sinuosities of our past course, and confidently 
direct its future progress — we must primarily sound 
the depths of our moral nature. We must ascertain 
the comparative strength, resources and capabilities 
of each of those faculties, which separately and in 
every variety of combination are destined to exert a 
controlling influence upon our future character. We 
must fortify, reinforce and strengthen the citadels of 
the heart ; disarm the passions of their power to in- 
jure ; render them tributary to virtue, amenable to 
conscience, and subservient to the supremacy of en- 
lightened reason ; and establish upon the firm basis 
of revelation and truth, that empire of mind which 
the wildest storms of external fortune shall be unable 
to shake, or the most formidable combinations of 
adverse fate to overthrow or subdue. Without this, 
intellectual power is of no avail. It becomes a ' flam- 
ing sword turning every way,' but not ; to guard the 
tree of life.' Of itself, it constitutes not human ex- 
cellence. It co-exists, as we have already seen, with 
qualities diametrically opposite in their nature ; and 
sheds as clear a light upon the deadliest machina- 
tions of the depraved and guilty mind, as upon the 
loftiest aspirations of the wise and good. In connec- 



PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND MORAL CULTURE. 41 

tion with, and in subordination to the moral senti- 
ments, it expands the mind, and gives depth and solid- 
ity to the character ; while at the same time it induces 
humility in the contemplation of the restricted limits 
within which its highest exertions are circumscribed 
— the mere point, in the vast immensity of the uni- 
verse, which it can hope to analyze or apprehend. 
But it is in this connection only, that it becomes a 
blessing. When its rays illume the dark recesses 
of guilt, it is only to shed a baleful glare. When 
it feeds the flame of passion, furnishes aliment 
to unchastened ambition, promotes the views of 
absorbing selfishness, pampers the appetite or ex- 
alts the pride of its possessor ; when the book of 
knowledge is opened only to discover or invent more 
extensive and efficient means of strengthening the 
ascendency and securing the dominion of those ani- 
mal propensities which have enslaved the higher na- 
ture ; when the wonders of creation — the uniform 
adaptation of the most perfect means to the highest 
ends of wisdom, benevolence and goodness — the in- 
cessant developements of the vastness, the grandeur 
and sublimity of the physical and moral universe, 
excite no responsive thrill of admiration, gratitude 
and deep humility — lead to no high appreciation of 
the dignity and value of the soul — no lofty concep- 
tion of the true destiny of humanity — the cultivation 
of the intellectual powers serves no higher purpose 
than that of decorating with gaudy pageantry the 
hollow sepulchre of the soul. 

13. It is not from the amount, the extent, or the 
variety of our knowledge, that our position in the 
universe, our character, our capabilities of usefulness 
or of progress, or our future destiny is to be deter- 
mined. It is the use we make of the talents which 
have been confided to our keeping — the purposes 
4 



42 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

they subserve — the spirit, the faith, the obedience 
with which they are husbanded — that constitute the 
test of merit, and afford the basis upon which a right- 
eous judgment is to be pronounced upon the results 
of our existence ; and in the retributions of eternity, 
conduct and motive are weighed in a balance, ad- 
mitting of no preponderance in favor of the most 
ample intellectual acquirement, unaccompanied by 
any corresponding fruit in the character and the life. 
The principle cannot be too strongly inculcated 0* 
enforced that knowledge alone, however varied o± 
extended — talent and genius, however brilliant — in- 
tellectual power, hoAvever vigorous, discriminating 
and acute — can never constitute that moral worth, 
that commanding elevation of character, that dignity 
of being, and those fair and beautiful proportions of 
mental structure, which make up the ideal of hu- 
manity, and give to our nature its intrinsic value and 
nobility. It is only when the supremacy of the 
moral nature is firmly established — when we have 
accustomed ourselves to refer every suggestion, every 
impulse, every desire and motive to the searching 
ordeal of that tribunal which the Creator has placed 
as his vice-gerent in the soul, that we may profitably 
explore the vast arcana of nature and of art, for those 
treasures of knowledge, which will then and then 
only unfold to our intellectual conception their true 
uses and ends. In the moral, as in the physical 
world, the most nutritious and invigorating sub- 
stances are dependent for their efficacious and salu- 
tary results upon the healthy condition of the system 
which partakes of their qualities. That intellectual 
aliment which to the mind properly disciplined and 
matured for its reception becomes assimilated and 
incorporated with its essence, strengthening, invigor- 
ating and replenishing all its energies, to another* 



PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND MORAL CULTURE. 43 

languid perhaps and feeble from inaction, debilitated 
by indiscriminating indulgence, or excited to an 
unnatural tension by the unregulated and undue 
action of the passions, so far from communicating 
elasticity and health, increases existing disorder, 
introduces new sources of disease and fatally de- 
ranges the entire mental constitution. That which 
to the one is a ' savor of life unto life ' not unfre- 
quently proves to the other a ' savor of death unto 
death.'* 

14. True elevation and dignity of character 
are dependent, not upon intellectual supremacy, 
but upon moral worth. Those minds which have 
impressed their stamp upon after ages — the found- 
ers of systems — the pioneers of thought — the re- 
formers of the world — have been distinguished for 
nothing so much as for the simplicity, purity, and 
'daily beauty' of their lives. They have not in- 
deed been exempted from fallibility, from error, or 
from the frailties and weaknesses incident to humani- 
ty in its best estate ; but they have successfully strug- 
gled with and subdued those formidable tendencies 
to evil, which find so congenial an abode in the un- 
disciplined mind ; and truth and nature, to their 
comprehension, have been revealed through an at- 
mosphere disencumbered from the heavy mists of 
passion and the grosser particles of vice and guilt. 
The progressive and harmonious developement of 
all the faculties of our nature — the adaptation of each 
to its peculiar and appropriate sphere of action and 
of duty — a thorough and equal cultivation of all — 
and the systematic and enlightened advancement of 
their combined influences to the great purposes of 
existence, here and hereafter ; these are the true 
constituents of sound mental and moral discipline — 
the indispensable elements of that culture and charac- 



44 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

ter which the exalted interests of humanity demand. 
The undue preponderance of any faculty or combi- 
nation of faculties, whatever may be its legitimate 
capacities for usefulness, or the peculiar and appro- 
priate sphere of action for which it may be designed, 
deranges and disturbs this essential harmony, and 
becomes productive of disorder and evil. None of 
the passions or propensities implanted in the consti- 
tution of our being are destitute of a sphere of action 
and of motive, within which their manifestation is 
not only innocent, but salutary and even indispen- 
sable ; and many of the sentiments which we are 
most accustomed to reverence and admire, may, and 
by no means unfrequently do, act from the impulse 
of mere passion — the exuberance of irrepressible 
sympathy — from habit — from constitutional tendency 
— and from the operation of motives often as excep- 
tionable as those which prompt to their opposite 
vices. 



THE NATURE AND MISSION OF GENIUS. 45 



CHAPTER III. 



THE NATURE AND MISSION OF GENIUS. 

1. It has been observed that men, in all ages 
have essentially differed in the possession of general 
and particular talents, whether connected with the 
cultivation of science and the arts, or pertaining to 
that species of mental power which confers moral 
superiority and strength of character. These differ- 
ences have obviously not been the result of mere 
volition, nor have they been capable of essential 
diminution, much less of eradication, by the utmost 
exertions of human means. Hence, doubtless, has 
originated the infinite variety of character and at- 
tainment which has always existed, and which is so 
universally apparent. In the ordinary intercourse of 
society, we experience no difficulty in detecting 
among the mass of men congregated in the great 
thoroughfares of civilization, the most palpable shades 
of intellectual and moral difference ; while perhaps 
but very few rise to any remarkable extent above the 
ordinary level of the society of which they form a 
part. Occasionally, however, we meet with those, 
whose intellectual powers, wholly or in part, seem to 
expand without effort to the highest degree of ad- 
vancement, and to embrace at once and intuitively 
the utmost extent of science and knowledge compris- 
ed within the range of the peculiar faculties thus 
vigorously manifested. These extraordinary devel- 
opements of the mental functions however, rarely 
include the entire circle of the intellectual or moral 
attributes of our nature ; and accordingly we almost 



46 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

invariably find the highest efforts of genius concen- 
trated upon some favorite department of exertion in 
which its energies are exhausted, while in all the 
other walks of science, mediocrity alone is apparent. 
2. The manifestations of this superiority of en- 
dowment have, not unfrequently, been ascribed in a 
great degree to the presence and operation of adven- 
titious causes ; and regarded as the consequence 
rather of education, habit and discipline, joined to a 
favorable combination of external circumstances, than 
of any radical inequality of natural gifts. Notwith- 
standing the universal prevalence of the most oppo- 
site and distinctive peculiarities of character and at- 
tainment, the conclusion has been deduced that no 
fundamental diversity of faculties existed ; that the 
inclination, the will and the necessary exertion were 
alone requisite, in the absence of any external obsta- 
cle, to place each intelligent individual of the species 
upon a footing of equality with those who have man- 
ifested the utmost compass of mental power. It has 
not been without a long and severe struggle that this 
flattering doctrine of the essential equality of the 
mental faculties, has at length been generally aban- 
doned as utterly untenable by reason, and unfounded 
in nature. The irresistible mass of evidence estab- 
lishing apparently beyond the possibility of cavil, a 
doctrine more in consonance with the experience and 
good sense of mankind, has, it is true, been ingen- 
iously sought to be parried by urging the known and 
powerful influence of climate, education, habit and 
circumstances, over the formation and developement 
of character. A thorough investigation, however, of 
the elementary principles of mental philosophy has 
abundantly demonstrated that much as these and 
similar influences may modify, they can neither 
create, nor materially control, the predominant facul- 
ties of our nature. 



THE NATURE AND MISSION OF GENIUS. 47 

3. If the proposition be true that we can infer the 
existence, extent and variety of the mental faculties, 
only from their different manifestations, the conclu- 
sion is irresistible that intellectual and moral powers 
have been unequally bestowed upon the human fam- 
ily, and that Genius owes its triumphs to a source 
essentially independent as well of any external com- 
bination of circumstances, as of extraordinary mental 
application, habit or discipline. In the idiot no ex- 
ternal indications of the presence and operation of 
intellectual or moral faculties are discernible, and 
we therefore invariably and justly infer their non- 
existence in the constitution of his being, or at least, 
(and for the purposes of our argument, the effect is 
precisely the same,) the non-existence or complete 
derangement of the physical organs by means of 
which alone they can, in this world, be manifested. 
In the natives of New Holland, portions of Africa 
and Asia, and some of the islands of the Pacific, the 
manifestations of these faculties are feeble and inef- 
ficient, barely sufficing for the lowest condition of 
human existence ; and we accordingly assign to 
these unfortunate and degraded beings, a correspond- 
ing deficiency in mental and moral organization. 
On the other hand, in the civilized nations of the 
globe, the arts and sciences are cultivated, the imag- 
ination expands, the moral affections are constantly 
called into active exercise, civil and religious institu- 
tions are established and maintained, and the vast 
machinery of society harmoniously revolves, dispen- 
sing its innumerable blessings, and carrying forward, 
with gigantic strides, the destinies of the race ; and 
here we reach the highest developement, and infer 
the presence of the most exalted intellectual and 
moral capacities. But here too, we are called upon 
to distinguish the greatest variety of developement, 
among the individuals who compose these various 



48 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

communities, from the wretched outcasts who linger 
on the confines of barbarism, the incurably vicious, or 
hopelessly imbecile, up to the Bacons, the Napoleons, 
and the Franklins, who occupy the highest niches in 
the temple of fame. 

4. This variety will be found to exist, so far as 
we are able to discover, wholly irrespective and in- 
dependent of external circumstances, of education, of 
rank or station, of the determination of the will, or 
in short, of any artificial or extraneous appliances, 
physical or moral. In numerous well authenticated 
instances, the peculiar direction and extraordinary 
energy of the mental faculties, do not even await the 
period ordinarily assigned to their earliest develope- 
ment. Handel, Haydn, and Mozart conceived and 
executed the most difficult and complicated pieces of 
music before the age of twelve years. Raphael, at 
the same immature period, had exhibited the most 
decided and unequivocal proofs of the splendid tal» 
ents as an artist for which he afterwards became so 
celebrated ; and our own eminent painter West, 
equally early displayed a power of conception, and a 
facility and happiness of execution, surpassing, in 
his own mature judgment, any of his subsequent 
attainments. Pascal, without even the aid of an 
instructor, had before the age of sixteen mastered the 
elements of Euclid, and written a treatise on conic 
sections ; and the peculiar genius of Canova was 
developed at a still earlier period. Milton, Pope and 
Cowley, to use the language of Dr. Johnson, ' gave 
such early proofs not only of powers of language but 
of comprehension of things as to more tardy minds 
seems scarcely credible.' Metastasio, in early child- 
hood, amused himself with extemporary poetical 
composition ; and the extraordinary powers of mind 
of Dante prematurely wasted his physical energies, 
and subjected his too susceptible temperament to 



THE NATURE AND MISSION OF GENIUS. 49 

constant suffering-. The records of history and biog- 
raphy and the biographies of distinguished individu- 
als in the various walks of literature and science, 
present numerous similar illustrations of the strongly 
marked precocity of Genius ; and our own observa- 
tion, not unfrequently enables us to verify their fidel- 
ity and to recognize their conformity to nature. 
The almost supernatural mathematical powers of 
Zerah Colburn, at the age of five years, and the 
thrilling bursts of poetry which spontaneously flowed 
from the pens of Lucretia Maria Davison and her 
no less gifted and unfortunate sister, are striking 
instances of mental endowments, closely bordering 
upon instinctive powers. 

5. There have been men too in every age, who, 
in the fulfilment of the mission confided to them by 
Genius, have surmounted the most discouraging 
obstacles of adverse fortune ; who, in spite of diffi- 
culties, which to ordinary minds would have proved 
utterly disheartening, have risen to eminence ; who, 
unaided and alone, have sought out the fountains of 
knowledge and the repositories of science ; and who, 
sustained by their intrinsic greatness of soul have 
waged a triumphant warfare with the powerful ad- 
verse influences which opposed their progress. Mil- 
lions of the human race since the world began have, 
in their generation, enjoyed the advantages of wealth, 
of station, and of leisure. The various paths of sci- 
ence and wisdom to such have been invitingly 
thrown open, and strewed with flowers ; and yet 
they have left no abiding memorial of their existence 
— bequeathed to the world no rich inheritance of 
thought — transmitted to posterity no legacy of undy- 
ing fame. They doubtless fulfilled, more or less 
worthily, more or less faithfully, their part in the 
great drama of existence ; they toiled, they suffered ; 
5 



50 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

by turns they became the victims of the craft, the 
power, the oppression of their fellows, and of the still 
more unrelenting domination of their own passions 
and propensities ; and ' life's fitful fever o'er, they 
sleep well.' But neither physical obstacles nor unpro- 
pitious circumstances — neither depressing poverty nor 
perverse opposition — neither ' principalities nor pow- 
ers ' have been able to arrest the progress or stay the 
resistless career of Genius, in its ascent to greatness 
and to fame. It matters not whether the future hero, 
philosopher, poet, artist, or statesman, be born and 
nourished in the pavilions of princes, or the obscure 
recesses of a lonely garret — whether 'the bright sun 
of prosperity illumine his opening fortunes, or the 
thickest clouds of adversity encompass the horizon 
of his hopes ; his irrepressible energies burst asunder 
with equal ease and certainty the silken bonds of 
effeminacy, and the iron chains of adverse fate. 
Surrounded by the most unpropitious circumstances, 
and without the aid of fortune, friends or adventitious 
influence, Shakspeare poured forth the masterly effu- 
sions of his varied and profound intellect. Milton's 
' Paradise Lost ' was produced under the pressure of 
the deepest worldly gloom, and amid circumstances 
of the most trying and painful nature. Poverty, des- 
titution and hardships cradled the genius of Burns, 
and cares and sorrows, vexations and disappoint- 
ments, penury and remorse pursued him to the tomb. 
The melting and soul-subduing pathos of Tasso em- 
anated from the unbroken solitude of his dungeon. 
Columbus painfully advanced to the great task of a 
world's discovery, through long years of privation, 
despondency and discouragement. The splendid 
discoveries of Kepler were promulgated in the midst 
of the most harassing penury and destitution. Heyne's 
meridian of life had been overpassed before one soli- 
tary gleam of prosperous fortune relieved the heavy 



THE NATL'IiE AND MISSION OF GENIUS. 51 

gloom which had brooded over its morning-sky ; and 
Claude Lorrain and Salvator Rosa sustained an in- 
cessant and unequal conflict with hardships and dif- 
ficulties innumerable and trying. On the other hand, 
the muse of Byron would not have soared to a less 
lofty height, nor the intellectual powers of Newton, 
Bacon or Boyle, have been circumscribed within 
narrower bounds, had their lines fallen in less pleas- 
ant places. Are we not warranted, therefore, in the 
assertion that the influence which external circum- 
stances exert over the destiny of Genius, is inconsid- 
erable and unimportant ? 

6. The peculiar direction which extraordinary 
intellectual endowments assume in their develope- 
ment, is not unfrequently, perhaps uniformly, depen- 
dent upon the predominating influence of the moral 
qualities of the mind. If the higher and nobler sen- 
timents habitually prevail, the tendency of the intel- 
lectual faculties will lead to the recognition and pro- 
motion of pursuits allied to benevolence, justice and 
philanthropy ; while, on the other hand, if these 
noble sentiments are practically subordinated to the 
control of the passions, the talents bestowed will be 
perverted, and the most brilliant capacity serve only 
the ignoble purpose of ministering to the most de- 
praved vices of humanity. The history of the world 
is full of illustrations in support of this proposition. 
How often are we called upon to lament the infat- 
uation with which mental powers of the highest order 
have been perversely prostituted to the worst and 
most degrading purposes ; while, on the contrary, 
with what lively satisfaction do we trace the elevated 
and noble career of the Franklins, the Howards, the 
Fenelons, the Oberlins of the race ! Compare the 
baleful influence and desolating effects of the unrival- 
led genius of Napoleon, with the expanded patriotism 
— the purity of life and of purpose which so eminent- 



52 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

ly characterized our own Washington ! Contrast the 
demoralizing tendency of Byron's fitful, morbid and 
impassioned muse, dazzling as* may be its splendor 
of diction and of thought, with the religious cheerful- 
ness, the philosophic serenity, the calm beauty of 
Wordsworth, or of Bryant. 

7. The various peculiarities of mental and moral 
character which in every age have made up the ag- 
gregate of human life — which are often as distinct, 
palpable and strongly marked in individuals residing 
in the same community, moving in the same sphere 
of life, and even composing the same family, as in 
those separated by continents and oceans, or occupy- 
ing the most dissimilar stations — are utterly incon- 
sistent with the hypothesis of an original equality of 
endowments. The very admiration which we are 
accustomed to lavish upon the productions of Genius 
— the rich incense of praise which uniformly ascends 
to the memory of those who have distinguished them- 
selves in the exhibition of intellectual or moral su- 
premacy — afford the most conclusive evidence that 
mankind have universally regarded such exhibitions 
as within the mental compass of the favored few 
alone. Who would not, if he could, sound with 
Shakspeare each harmonious or discordant note, of 
passion or of feeling in the world of the imagination, 
until its vibrations found an echo in every human 
bosom ? or soar, with Milton, on the strong wings of 
thought to the highest realms of the upper air ? or 
sanctify, with Wordsworth, each passing scene of life 
by infusing into its associations the ' still sad music 
of humanity ? ' Who would not delight to trace, with 
Newton, the vast machinery of the universe? with 
Franklin, to disarm the elements ? or with Fulton 
and Watt and Arkwright, to confer new sources of 
power upon the physical energies of the race ? Or 
who would not, if conscious of the ability, transfer to 



THE NATURE AND MISSION OF GENIUS. 53 

the canvas, the sublime and beautiful conceptions of a 
Raphael, a Titian, or a Guido ? or emulate those sur- 
passing combinations of melody and harmony, which 
the great Italian masters alone have been able to 
produce ? Who does not admire the splendid mani- 
festations of genius ? who does not delight to inhale 
its ethereal essence — to appropriate its rich treasures 
of thought and design — to appreciate its intrinsic 
greatness, and to perpetuate and consecrate its tri- 
umphs ? Who does not, in the language of an elo- 
quent writer, ' delight to watch, fold by fold, the 
buckling on of the celestial panoply, and to witness 
the leading forth of that chariot, which, borne on ir- 
resistible wheels, and drawn by steeds of immortal 
race, is destined to crush the necks of the mighty, 
and sweep away the serried strength of armies ! ' 
But to ascend those lofty heights of intellectual and 
moral power, from whence we may look abroad upon 
the vast domain of nature and penetrate its most se- 
cret recesses, is given only to the master spirits of the 
race. It is nature's best and highest gift ; and when 
withheld is unattainable by human means. Its re- 
cipient is impelled by an irresistible mental and 
moral force to fulfil his high destiny ; and although 
he may miserably pervert the faculties bestowed up- 
on him, he cannot repress their powerful develope- 
ment. Whether they shall be exercised for good or 
for evil, may greatly depend upon the external in- 
fluences by which he is surrounded — upon the favor- 
able or unfavorable combinations of the mental con- 
stitution — upon education, habit or impulse ; but in 
whatever field of action their energies may be put 
forth, their commanding influence will be recognized. 
8. That seems therefore to be the true philosophy 
of the human mind in this respect, which teaches, as 
the invariable result of a faithful observation of na- 
5* 



54 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

ture, that the various intellectual and moral faculties 
are possessed in different degrees by different indi- 
viduals ; that this diversity of endowment is original 
and innate ; that although it is susceptible to a great- 
er or less extent of modification by circumstances, 
education and habit, it is neither created nor can it 
be materially affected by either or by any of these 
causes ; and that the phenomena of Genius are the 
results of a high degree of manifestation of the men- 
tal faculties, or of some one or more of them. It 
follows, from this view of the subject, that no indi- 
vidual has it in his power, by the utmost efforts 
of thought, application or discipline, so to add to his 
intellectual or moral stature as to compass the attain- 
ment of powers not originally bestowed upon him. 
He may indeed, and should, develope to their utmost 
capacity those faculties which God and nature have 
conferred ; he may enlarge and expand his intellectu- 
al vision, and establish on a more firm basis, the 
supremacy of his moral and religious nature ; but 
history, observation and experience, have abundantly 
demonstrated, that each individual finds a limit which 
he may not overpass, whatever may be the relation 
which that limit holds to the talents, capacities and 
acquirements of others. Vast and comprehensive as 
were the acknowledged powers of Shakspeare in the 
analysis and interpretation of universal humanity, 
those great discoveries which were accomplished by 
Newton, Galileo, Franklin and Kepler, — and those 
constructive and inventive talents which formed the 
intellectual strength of Arkwright, Watt and Fulton, 
were beyond the pale even of his splendid genius. 
Nor could Raphael, though possessing a rare and fe- 
licitous combination of mental faculties, have invent- 
ed the telescope, nor Davy have ornamented the 
chambers of the Vatican with the magnificent crea- 
tions of beauty. Upon each and every individual 



THE NATURE AND MISSION OF GENIUS. 55 

the Creator has bestowed those capacities and talents 
best adapted, in the view of Omnipotent Wisdom, to 
his peculiar condition ; and while to some a greater, 
and to others a less endowment has been granted, 
each is responsible for the due cultivation and faith- 
ful application of the powers conferred. 

9. This arrangement of the moral world, when 
rightly viewed, is abundantly indicative of the wis- 
dom and benevolence of its Author, and will be found 
admirably in harmony with all our limited faculties 
are able to conceive of the great scheme of Creation and 
Providence. An infinite but systematic diversity of 
condition and attributes, pervades the whole of ani- 
mate and inanimate nature ; and the history of the 
world, and the discoveries of science, alike develope 
a constant and progressive capacity of improvement 
in the intellectual and moral nature of man. In the 
infancy of his being, his mental powers were neces- 
sarily restricted within a very narrow compass ; but, 
as century after century rolls on, we find a slow but 
certain progress manifesting itself not only in an in- 
creased, more accurate and extensive knowledge of 
the physical world, but in a higher appreciation and 
wiser cultivation of the distinctive faculties of hu- 
manity. For this purpose we are indebted, not so 
much to the simultaneous advance and self-enlight- 
enment of the race, as to the predominating influence 
of the few who from time to time have stood forward, 
as the guides, the teachers, the educators of their 
fellow men ; to those who, rising above the prevail- 
ing standard of knowledge, have sought out and an- 
nounced some hitherto undiscovered fundamental 
principle, upon which mankind, sooner or later, have 
taken their stand, and from thence proceeded to 
higher attainments, and entered a more expanded 
field of progress. With rare exceptions, the tri- 
umphs of Genius have heralded the advancement of 



56 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

the race. Its manifestations have opened up the 
paths of improvement in all that is valuable in knowl- 
edge, conducive to civilization, elevating in morality, 
and ennobling in humanity. Its votaries have been 
emphatically the pioneers of mind, the harbingers 
of truth, the interpreters of Nature in her manifold 
voices of wisdom and instruction, and the instru- 
ments in the hands of the Creator for the gradual 
unfolding of those great principles upon which the 
present and future destiny of the race depend. As 
such, we may well regard them as the benefactors 
of humanity, cherish their memory, and consecrate 
their achievements. But this fitting sentiment of 
veneration may be tempered by the reflection that the 
mission of Genius is special ; that its superiority, in 
one respect, is often counterbalanced by a corre- 
sponding inferiority in others, of equal and perhaps of 
superior general importance ; that it is not unfre- 
quently the source of misery and unhappiness to its 
possessor ; and that it is almost universally distin- 
guished by the absence of that harmonious symmetry 
and graceful proportion of character which constitutes 
the secret of well-being and the true charm of life. 

10. Each faculty of the human mind may find its 
appropriate aliment in the physical and moral world ; 
and it is unquestionably within the compass of every 
intelligent being, however unfavorably situated with 
reference to extrinsic circumstances, to accomplish a 
vast amount of individual, social, and general good ; 
to render even the calamities of life subservient to 
moral and intellectual advancement ; to adorn our 
common nature, within the sphere, however circum- 
scribed, which Providence has assigned as the theatre 
of his exertion and influence ; to add somewhat, at 
least, to the stock of human enjoyment, if he cannot 
contribute to that of knowledge and wisdom ; and 
daily to obtain a clearer insight into the mysteries 



THE NATURE AND MISSION OF GENIUS. 57 

by which he is surrounded, and of which his own 
existence constitutes so important a part. The en- 
lightenment of our minds ; the cultivation and dis- 
cipline of our whole nature ; the subjugation of our 
passions and propensities to the control of reason and 
of conscience ; the faithful discharge of all the duties 
incumbent upon us as reflecting, intelligent, and ac- 
countable beings; — these will constitute and secure our 
highest happiness ; and that life can never be deemed 
barren or useless, nor that condition unfavorable, in 
which we are enabled, by an unwavering conformity 
to the impulses of our better nature, aided by the 
pure precepts of Christianity, to accomplish the great 
purposes of existence. 



58 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 



1. That is the only true philosophy of human life 
which, by means of an enlightened knowledge and a 
just appreciation of all our powers and faculties, phys- 
ical, intellectual, and moral, enables us to conform, 
in all things, to the laws and constitution of our being. 
That a system of ethical and practical morality so 
consonant to our highest interest has not hitherto 
generally prevailed, is painfully obvious when we 
reflect upon the capacity of our common nature for 
the enjoyment of happiness, — a capacity conferred 
upon it by infinite benevolence, wisdom, and power, — 
and consider the vast amount of evil and of suffering, 
mental and physical, which surrounds us on every 
hand. It requires but an ordinary exertion of reason 
to be assured that these are not the legitimate or the 
necessary results of that wonderful organization which 
constitutes human life. On the contrary, we not 
only see the most abundant evidences of an opposite 
design and adaptation pervading our entire corporeal 
structure, but we perceive the invariable tendency of 
external nature to minister to our pleasure and bene- 
fit ; and we recognize the hand of a bounteous Bene- 
factor in the innumerable blessings which are spread 
out for our acceptance in the variegated domain of 
nature and of providence. It is, however, lamentably 
true, that man " has corrupted his way upon the 
earth ; " that, overstepping the boundaries prescribed 
by the Creator, and within which the high and holy 
purposes of existence might efficiently and harmo- 



MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 59 

niously have been accomplished, he " has sought 
out many inventions," and mingled the cup of his 
destiny with discordant and bitter ingredients. A 
systematic obedience to the natural and moral laws 
impressed by the Creator upon all the workmanship 
of his hands, must necessarily and invariably be pro- 
ductive of the highest degree of happiness — must 
secure an exemption from those numerous and dis- 
tressing physical ills which now so mournfully weigh 
down the energies of humanity, and substitute a 
cheerful and abiding enjoyment of all the innumer- 
able blessings of life. 

2. While it may safely be presumed that all men 
desire thus to fulfil the great purposes of existence, 
the melancholy experience of the world abundantly 
demonstrates that few have been able to comprehend, 
and still fewer to apply the means of accomplishing, 
this universal object of human exertion. Originally 
constituted with powers and faculties in harmony with 
each other, and with the external world, the legitimate 
exercise of these various powers and faculties was 
alone necessary to a full participation in the utmost 
measure of happiness of which humanity admitted. 
The lower orders of animated creation were endowed 
with constitutions adapted to their rank in the scale 
of being, and with faculties, powers, and sources of 
enjoyment, fitted to their several natures. The exer- 
cise of these faculties, however, was, in their case, as 
we have before had occasion to observe, restrained 
within certain definite and impassable limits ; with 
them the objects and purposes of existence are in- 
stinctively fulfilled ; and for them, by the very consti- 
tution of their nature, transgression is rendered im- 
possible. Upon man were conferred intellectual and 
moral powers, comprising within themselves every 
element of progressive improvement, of refined en- 
joyment, and substantial happiness ; together with the 



60 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

ability to exercise these powers wisely and judiciously, 
and to reap the rich fruits of an enlightened obe- 
dience to the laws of the Creator, or to pervert and 
misapply them, with all the certain and fearful respon- 
sibilities attached to a departure from the established 
conditions of physical and moral well-being. 

3. The absolute dependence of happiness upon 
obedience can be adequately and fully realized only by 
the painful experience resulting from an infringement 
of the Creator's laws. The relation thus established, 
it may well be conceived, would, at an early period 
of man's existence, be impressed upon his mind with 
a force and a distinctness proportioned to its impor- 
tance ; so that, when pain and misery, remorse or 
degradation, were experienced, there should be neither 
difficulty nor hesitation in tracing these desolating 
influences to their legitimate source — the violation of 
some organic, mental, or moral law. In proportion, 
however, as physical and moral evil extended its 
sway, widened and deepened its channels, and be- 
came diffused over the surface of society, — as occa- 
sional violations of the laws of being gradually, and 
by degrees, ripened into confirmed habits, and the 
distinctions between a strict obedience to the requisi- 
tions of the Creator and the variable standards set up 
by individuals or communities became confused or 
obliterated, — the intellectual and moral powers would, 
it is obvious, refer with constantly increasing difficulty 
to the sources of the internal and external conflict 
which would be experienced. The eternal and in- 
variable relation between virtue and happiness, and 
vice and misery, in all their forms, and under every 
combination of circumstances, would cease to be clear- 
ly apprehended, and man would grope his way, amid 
the manifold intricacies of life, in darkness, obscurity, 
and ignorance. By insensible degrees, fatal infringe- 
ments of the laws of being would be regarded as 



MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 61 

innocent, or, at least, as pardonable indulgences, and 
their consequences ranked among the inevitable ten- 
dencies of constitutional organization, or the unavoid- 
able evils of humanity. Bad passions, long unchecked, 
would obtain an uncontrollable ascendency over the 
moral nature ; and the virtuous principles, originally 
implanted, become incapable, from inaction, of exerting 
their high functions. Thus the entire harmony and 
beauty of the moral system would speedily and ef- 
fectually become deranged and defaced, and the 
bitter penalty induced by a disregard of the funda- 
mental laws so general and extensive would continu- 
ally be reproduced and transmitted from one gen- 
eration to another, heightened and inflamed by its 
reaction upon individuals and communities, and by a 
perverted and depraved public sentiment pervading, 
to a greater or less extent, all classes and conditions 
of men. 

4. The operation of this downward tendency in the 
mental and moral process which we have described, 
may be distinctly traced, as we follow the recorded 
history of the race from its primeval condition of 
innocence and purity to the present period. Where, 
in her weary flight over the vast expanse of the past, 
shall the emblem and messenger of peace and inno- 
cence find a verdant spot upon which to fold her 
wings and repose in undisturbed security ! The 
career of the princes, potentates, and rulers of the 
earth, has, with frightful uniformity, been marked by 
blood, and carnage, and desolation. Nations and 
kingdoms, empires and people, have fulfilled their 
troubled course — tasted for a brief period the cup of 
apparent prosperity, and drained that of retribution 
to its very dregs. With the history of the great mass 
of individuals composing these communities we are 
ignorant, except so far as its tenor may be legitimate- 
ly inferred from the character and results of their 



62 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

public institutions, their heroes and rulers, or from 
the deplorable ignorance, unrestrained wickedness, 
and lawless pollution, manifest upon every page of 
their annals. At occasional intervals, — intervals com- 
posing the established epochs of history, — the smoul- 
dering fires of man's wickedness and depravity, no 
longer capable of finding aliment beneath the surface 
of society upon which to exhaust their fury, have 
burst upon the astonished nations in all their aggra- 
vated intensity, spreading far and wide a fearful 
retribution. Moral eruptions like these impress upon 
us the conviction that, while a deep and palpable 
darkness had long brooded over the moral and intel- 
lectual powers, and while the lights of reason and 
revelation had ceased to shed even a temporary and 
fitful glow upon the rankling and festering corruptions 
of society in all its great departments, nothing less 
than a violent and desolating explosion of the angry 
elements, thus preying upon each other, and under- 
mining the social and moral fabric, could vindicate the 
eternal claims of justice and the fundamental laws of 
being. Good and great men, it is true, occasionally 
appeared, and maintained long and earnest struggles 
to recall and reestablish the long-forgotten landmarks 
of truth and nature. But their struggles were un- 
availing. Theirs were bright lights, shining with a 
vivid brilliancy amid the surrounding darkness ; and 
the mental eye still reposes with pleasure upon their 
time-hallowed lustre. To the age for which they 
beamed, however, their rays served only to reflect 
the unwelcome images of a mental and moral ex- 
cellence beyond its reach, and surpassing even its 
comprehension. Doubtless, too, the quiet waters of 
oblivion have closed over the lives of many who at- 
tained, in their generation, to the knowledge and ap- 
preciation of truth, who discovered and obeyed the 
laws of their being, and reaped the rich rewards of 



MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 63 

virtue and innocence. But the knowledge which the 
few thus sought out and appropriated was unavailing- 
ly offered to the acceptance of the many. The world 
had become a vast theatre, where riches, glory, and 
power, were the splendid prizes awarded to the suc- 
cessful competitors for its favors. The virtues, the 
graces, and ornaments, of public and private life were 
disregarded, uncultivated, and unsought. The laurel 
encircled the brow, and the triumphal pageant cheered 
the heart, of those alone who were most conspicuous 
in the bloody career of martial glory. Honor and 
fame, and the applause of the multitude, waited upon 
wealth, however attained ; the regards of the present, 
and the admiration and wonder of succeeding ages, 
were promised to the bold and successful soldier of 
fortune, however recklessly he had trampled upon 
every nobler feeling of the heart, and however heart- 
lessly he had crushed every opening and blooming 
flower of existence. What wonder, then, that the 
peaceful shrines of innocence, and purity, and peace, 
were deserted and abandoned ? that the admonitions 
of wisdom, with its " still, small voice," were unheard 
or unregarded ? that the temples of the God of nature 
and of providence were converted into shameless 
marts of hypocrisy and traffic, and desecrated by 
open crime and systematic pollution ? What wonder 
that, instead of the " peaceful fruits of righteousness," 
carnage and desolation reigned predominant ; law- 
less violence, in all its frightful forms, abounded and 
multiplied ; injustice and oppression stalked abroad, 
unrestrained by conscience or the arm of the civil 
magistrate ; and " men's hearts " every where " failed 
them for fear" ? 

5. But, leaving the past, let us briefly advert to the 
present ; and if, from a survey of all its aspects, we 
may rationally look forward to the future for a rapid 
and steady advance in that practical wisdom which 



64 MENTAL AND B10RAL CULTURE. 

shall make mankind better and happier, the philan- 
thropist and the Christian may still find abundant 
cause to rejoice in the dawn of a brighter dispensation. 
6. The aspects in which the present, with refer- 
ence to the past and the future, may be viewed, are 
manifold and various. Civilization has greatly ex- 
tended its boundaries, and elevated and expanded its 
character. The civilization of the present day, in 
kind as well as in degree, far surpasses that which we 
are accustomed still to term the civilization of Greece 
and Rome, and of the middle ages. Not only have 
the arts and sciences attained to a higher standard of 
excellence, and been much more widely and exten- 
sively diffused, but a nicer perception and a finer 
appreciation of humanity, as such, have been superin- 
duced. Mankind are more disposed to regard each 
other as equal in rights, in origin, and in destination ; 
as brethren of one common family, journeying to- 
gether, for a brief period, upon the same great 
thoroughfare of life, pursuing essentially the same 
objects by an infinite variety of means, liable to 
the same frailties and errors, and entitled, each 
from the other, to mutual forbearance, mutual sym- 
pathy, and kind offices. The gentle influences of the 
Christian religion have refined and softened the hearts 
of men, diffusing the kindly spirit of charity, of 
toleration, and of a comprehensive benevolence. The 
thrones of tyrants and the high places of the oppres- 
sor have been shaken to their foundations by the pow- 
erful upheaving and the irrepressible energies of the 
masses, conscious of their accumulated wrongs and 
their innate strength, and borne onward, by the mighty 
impulse of an aroused and enlightened public senti- 
ment, to the practical assertion of their rights,-; — not 
by violence, not through the tempestuous and cha- 
otic whirlwind of civil commotion, created and sus- 
tained by brute, sanguinary, undiscerning force, — but, 



MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 65 

by a moral strength and determination, accomplishing 
its high purpose by the fiat of its own indomitable 
will. The forms and institutions of the olden time 
indeed survive ; but they are forms and institutions 
only. Their spirit has forever departed. Like the 
crumbling monuments of Memphis, Thebes, and the 
Eternal City, they will be left to the corroding action 
of time, and become the objects of respectful curiosity 
to future ages, as the venerable relics of an imperfect 
civilization, which, having accomplished its mission in 
the discipline of humanity, was succeeded by a new 
order of things. 

7. The boundaries of the empire of thought, of 
reason, and of reflection, have, also, perceptibly been 
enlarged. Men, and classes of men, heretofore unac- 
customed to an analytical investigation of even the 
most ordinary phenomena of human life, are begin- 
ning to weigh and to compare opinions on the most 
important topics, to discuss and to controvert grave 
principles heretofore acquiesced in blindly on the 
authority of names, or at the suggestion of an unrea- 
soning and absurd prejudice. Symptoms are abroad 
which render the inference by no means irrational, 
that the present century at least, if not the existing 
generation, will witness the peaceable demolition of 
many of those arbitrary barriers to advancement and 
improvement which owe their origin to a state of 
things which has long ceased to exist — to institutions 
no longer recognized by the civilization of modern 
times, and to an era of intellectual and moral prog- 
ress far behind the prevailing standard. To what 
purpose is this rushing together of the elements of 
mental and moral strength from the various regions 
to which modern civilization has extended — all tend- 
ing, through an infinite combination of channels, to one 
great end — all seeking to unravel the tangled web 
6 



66 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

of human destiny, to penetrate the labyrinths of 
existence, to reveal the deeply-buried, long-con- 
cealed treasures there deposited ? What mean the 
anxious expectations with which the great heart of 
humanity, in all its mighty pulsations, is tremblingly 
alive, and beats in concert, presaging the advent of 
some organic change in the moral world — a change 
to be wrought by the weapons of enlightened reason, 
guided by pure and undefined religion, and sanctified 
by truth and nature ? Do they not indicate an ul- 
timate combination, strength, and direction, before 
which error, in all its manifold forms, will be expelled 
from its last stronghold, and the true dignity, power, 
and destiny of man be asserted and maintained ? 

8. Our earthly existence has been termed a proba- 
tionary state ; and this is unquestionably true with 
reference not merely to our individual experience, 
hopes, and destiny, but to that of the race. Endowed 
with an immortal nature, gifted with faculties and 
powers which enable us to attain the highest happi- 
ness and virtue, and favored with a clear revelation 
of the path of duty, and with the capacity to acquire 
a full knowledge of good and evil, and to appreciate 
the responsibility involved in their choice, — we have 
yet been left free so to combine and mould the 
complicated elements of our being as to form our 
own distinctive character, work out our own enjoy- 
ment, and shape our own destiny. As, in the prog- 
ress of individual existence, it requires long years of 
bitter experience, deep and varied reflection, and a 
constant study of human nature in all its aspects, to 
enable us to approximate to a correct estimate of our 
own powers, duties, and interest, so, in reference to 
the race, centuries may pass before the true philosophy 
of human life may be evolved from the discordant 
elements of human experience, study, and reflection. 
We may be permitted to indulge the hope, that the 



MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 67 

time is not far distant when the great mass of man- 
kind shall, at least, have learned the lesson which it 
will have cost so many ages of violence and blood- 
shed to acquire, — that the collisions of the passions 
and propensities can never advance the interests nor 
promote the welfare of the race. It is impossible to 
estimate how many centuries of civilization have been 
postponed to the miserable ambition for power, for 
dominion, and a false greatness. The almost incon- 
ceivable advance which less than half a century of 
comparative exemption from the turmoil of physical 
contest has witnessed, may, perhaps, afford us a 
feeble conception of the mental and moral elevation 
to which we might have attained, had this great lesson 
been earlier learnt. But, notwithstanding the preva- 
lence of physical violence and mental gloom, the 
lights of science and civilization have cheered and 
illumined the nations of the earth. Within the com- 
pass of less than four centuries, the progress of knowl- 
edge, in all that relates to the material universe, has 
enabled us to ascertain, with precision and certainty, 
the laws by which the planetary orbs are governed, 
the various elements and properties of matter in all 
its forms, the complicated phenomena of the animal 
and vegetable creation, the structure and composi- 
tion of the earth's surface, the causes and the limi- 
tations of elemental strife, and the multifarious mani- 
festations of animal and physical organization. The 
great principle has been established that all the work- 
manship of the Creator displayed to human view is 
subjected to certain and invariable laws ; that these 
laws are susceptible of discovery and comprehen- 
sion ; and that, by their constant and pervading 
operation, all the phenomena of the visible creation 
are sustained, and the vast machinery of the universe 
harmoniously directed. 

9. These great results of knowledge and science 



68 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

having thus been brought within the comprehension 
of all who desire to look into the instructive book of 
external nature, the interesting inquiry is now wide- 
ly beginning to be agitated, What are the laws by 
which the mind itself exists, and by what means, and 
under what conditions, and subject to what influences, 
does it manifest its myriad combinations of powers, 
faculties, sentiments, propensities, and emotions ? If 
to all the other emanations of creative wisdom and 
goodness fixed laws have been prescribed, and these 
laws and their operations brought within the compass 
of the human intellect, and rendered capable of being 
applied to the various purposes of science and art, is 
not the inference irresistible that to our immortal and 
spiritual nature laws equally certain and invariable 
have been prescribed, the knowledge of which is 
equally attainable, and of far greater importance to 
our present and future welfare ? Metaphysicians, 
from the days of Aristotle to the present day, have 
earnestly sought to solve this great problem ; but, with 
rare exceptions, they have failed, until within com- 
paratively a recent period, to throw around this deeply 
interesting and important subject the full and clear 
light of demonstration, or to carry conviction to the 
minds of men. They have too often cut the Gor- 
dian knot, without endeavoring patiently and perse- 
veringly to unfold its complicated mazes. They have 
addressed themselves rather to the intellects of the 
cultivated few, than to the hearts of the mass of the 
human family, equally interested with the wisest of the 
race in the practical solution of this momentous ques- 
tion. They have succeeded in erecting a great va- 
riety of admirable superstructures, each tinged with 
the peculiar mental and moral colors of its architect, 
each faithfully representing the consciousness and 
the attainments of the individual mind from which 
it emanated, but possessing few of those enduring 



MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 69 

elements of universal truth and nature capable of 
instant recognition and immediate approbation by 
every grade of intellect and every variety of moral 
advancement. One system has rapidly succeeded 
another ; and this, in its turn, has given place to a 
more ingenious and plausible hypothesis ; all equally 
artificial and unsatisfactory. The minds of earnest 
inquirers were unsettled and unconvinced ; the human 
intellect roamed over the broad fields of imagination 
without a guide, building up for itself misty, vague, 
and unsubstantial theories ; and at a period when a 
rational, simple, and harmonious system was univer- 
sally demanded, — a system based upon the immovable 
foundations of nature, and adapted to all the capaci- 
ties, wants, and aspirations, of humanity, — the meta- 
physics of the schools furnished nothing beyond the most 
abstract conceptions of isolated intellect, captivating, 
indeed, and beautiful to the fancy, but cheerless and 
uninviting to the heart. 

10. Undeniably, this failure to apprehend the true 
philosophy of the human mind was mainly owing to 
the absence of a practical and systematic arrangement 
of the ample materials for observation and analysis 
which were within the reach and at the command of 
the inquirer. That man possessed a reasoning and 
discriminating mind, with which the lower classes 
of organized beings were not endowed, was a self- 
evident proposition. That this mind was intimately 
connected with the body, and that it could mani- 
fest itself only through that physical organization 
which constituted life, was equally evident; and yet, 
in all its essential and distinctive attributes, it ap- 
peared to be superior to and independent of its mate- 
rial adjunct, in effect controlling all those movements, 
and directing and presiding over all those acts of the 
latter, which involved any degree of moral responsi- 
bility, and manifesting, from time to time, the most 



70 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE, 

unequivocal indications of its distinct and separate 
nature. The existence of various faculties, and vari- 
ous modes of manifestation of the mind, under the 
influence of different sentiments, feelings, and emotions, 
was also distinctly recognized and admitted ; and it 
was apparent that different individuals, possessing in 
common the general attributes which compose the 
human mind, differed, nevertheless, essentially in 
character, conduct, and acquirement. Some rose to 
a high station in the world's regard, and secured for 
themselves a rich harvest of future fame : others de- 
voted their lives to the attainment of selfish ends, and 
the gratification of the passing moment. Some were 
amiable, benevolent, and just, in all the relations and 
contingencies of life ; others a constant prey to 
the worst and most degrading influences — heartless, 
treacherous, and devoid of sensibility. Some as- 
siduously cultivated their intellectual powers, and 
rendered every acquisition available to themselves 
and to others ; while others were content to pass 
through life as they best might, with such knowledge 
as the passing occurrences of the hour might furnish, 
and such principles as had been instilled into their 
minds by those who had surrounded them from in- 
fancy. There was no other standard by which to try 
these diversified results of the same general mental 
conformation, than that of Education. The melan- 
choly experience of the educated world, however, failed 
to establish the proposition, that a virtuous course of 
conduct, and a corresponding elevation of mind, were 
the necessary and invariable result of intellectual and 
moral discipline, however thorough and complete. 
The wisest and most profound speculations on the 
philosophy of the human mind were therefore found 
wholly unsatisfactory when applied to individuals in 
detail, however well adapted to the general character 
of mankind, or to particular combinations of that 



MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 71 

character. In the kindred inquiries into the material 
world, the inductive philosophy had attained to absolute 
demonstration ; the circle of science, and of the arts, 
had been visibly and permanently enlarged ; and 
principles were established on incontrovertible founda- 
tions, which enabled the student to solve, without diffi- 
culty, the most intricate and interesting problems of 
external nature. But, in investigating the phenomena 
of the human mind, the inductive philosophy had been 
widely departed from ; and, instead of first carefully 
ascertaining all the facts bearing upon the inquiry, and 
from such facts attempting to deduce the principle by 
which they were governed, the ancient and exploded 
system of reasoning from general principles to par- 
ticular facts had been restored. Thus the fundamental 
assumptions upon which the investigations of mental 
philosophers were based being erroneous, or at best 
hypothetical, their details were inconclusive, vague, 
and mystical. 

11. At this crisis an obscure individual, in the heart 
of Germany, began to attract the attention of inquiring 
minds, by the originality, novelty, and interest of his 
speculations on the nature and operations of the mind. 
Putting forward no pretensions to the character of an 
authoritative expounder of ethical science, having 
formed no hypothesis, cherished no theory, matured 
no system, — one of those simple and ordinary occur- 
rences which, when subjected to the eagle eye of 
Genius, is sometimes fraught with the most momentous 
consequences, directed his mind to a train of reflections 
involving results of immense magnitude and universal 
interest. Acknowledging no guide but Nature, and 
faithfully gathering and applying the responses of this 
infallible oracle, he waited long and patiently at the 
shrine of his great teacher, before venturing to inter- 
pret to the wondering and incredulous multitude the 
revelations of the Deity, hidden as yet from their view. 



72 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

Confining his researches and inductions strictly 
within the pale of accurate observation and experi- 
ence, and aided by the superior intellectual acumen 
and scientific skill of a kindred mind, the details of a 
system were gradually and cautiously evolved, which 
challenged the most scrutinizing investigation, and 
addressed itself directly and powerfully to the most 
enlightened sanctions of the intellect, and the best and 
holiest sympathies of the heart. This system assumes 
for its basis the undeniable connection and mutual 
dependence of the mind and body, during our earthly 
existence, and the fact that the former, whatever may 
be its essence, uniformly manifests itself, in this state 
of being, through the agency of the latter, By a 
series of analytical experiments, founded upon a close 
and patient investigation of facts, it was ascertained 
and demonstrated beyond the possibility of cavil, tnat 
the brain, the acknowledged seat of the mind, consists 
of a series of organs, each of which is charged with 
the manifestation of a distinct faculty of the mind ; 
that the relative location of these organs, and the 
mental functions which they perform, are susceptible 
of discovery ; and that upon the predominance of the 
particular faculties, sentiments, or propensities, which 
are manifested through these organs, or the various 
combinations of them which distinguish the various 
conformations of mind, is founded the infinite diversity 
of character, conduct, and attainment, which pervades 
humanity. These faculties, sentiments, and propen- 
sities were classified, as well with reference to their 
functions in the development and manifestation of the 
animal, the intellectual, and the moral nature of man, 
as to their respective agency in the production of the 
various passions, emotions, and conceptions, which 
prevail to a greater or less extent in the composition 
of every intelligent being. 

12. Innumerable observations, extending through a 



MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 73 

period of more than half a century, and embracing 
every variety of character and of detail, have placed 
this great system of mental and moral philosophy upon 
the soundest and most irrefragable basis. The circle 
of its influence is steadily and rapidly expanding 
through every class of society, reaching every grade 
of mind, fertilizing the vast soil of humanity in all its 
departments, and preparing a rich and abundant har- 
vest of practical usefulness. Its interesting and sub- 
lime revelations bear no affinity to those mysterious and 
incomprehensible abstractions which have so long 
usurped the high places of metaphysical lore. They 
come to us speaking the language of truth and nature, 
in a voice by which all who have " ears to hear," 
and hearts to feel, may profit ; which penetrates to the 
innermost sanctuary of individual consciousness, and 
wakens the slumbering echoes of humanity. Those 
who occupied the chief seats in the numerous temples 
of the ancient philosophy, while they have instinctively 
denounced and proscribed these new and strange 
doctrines, have seen, with increasing alarm, their steady 
advance and rapidly extending influence. Their 
" ineffectual fires " have paled and grown dim before 
the brightening light and kindling warmth of the rising 
orb. The human mind is no longer symbolized to 
the imagination as a heterogeneous and inexplicable 
compound of ethereal influences and " baser matter," 
impelling to opposite and discordant results. The 
" middle wall of partition," which for ages had sepa- 
rated the constituent elements of our common human- 
ity, has been broken down ; and man stands forth in 
the image of his Creator, " a living soul," occupying 
and consecrating by its deathless energies an organized 
corporeal structure, a " temple not made with hands," 
with powers and faculties, propensities and sentiments, 
each performing its own peculiar and appropriate 
7 



74 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

functions within the prescribed range of its operations, 
fulfilling harmoniously its separate mission, and all 
effectually and admirably adapted to the diffusion of 
happiness, the promotion of knowledge, the attainment 
of wisdom, and the progressive advancement and im- 
provement of the race. 

13. From the general adoption and prevalence of 
this philosophy, authenticated and enforced as we find 
it to be by the highest evidence and most authoritative 
sanction of reason, experience, and revelation, results 
of surpassing importance to the welfare of the race 
may rationally be anticipated. That knowledge which 
it most concerns all to possess, — the knowledge of the 
human heart, of the constitution of our being, the laws 
by which it acts, the faculties and powers of our 
common nature, their functions, uses, and operations, 
the limits within which they minister to our happiness 
and promote our improvement in wisdom, in virtue, 
and purity, and the boundaries beyond which, stretch 
out, in long perspective, the domains of guilt, wretch- 
edness, and misery, — this knowledge, with all its illimi- 
table consequences, and vast responsibilities for good 
or for evil, is brought within the range of all classes 
and conditions of men. The high and the low, the 
rich and the poor, the monarch in his seat of power, 
and the laborer in his humble cottage, he who, en- 
throned in the majesty and might of moral and in- 
tellectual strength, dispenses the treasures of a wis- 
dom gathered from the remotest and least accessi- 
ble regions of thought and experience, and he to whom 
the higher influences of the world of mind must 
remain a sealed book, and whose solitary and unprof- 
itable talent is buried in oblivion,— each and all are 
invited to read the open volume which faithfully 
1 effects their several natures, and from its illuminated 
j. ages to derive that instruction most needed to redeem 
the errors of the past, and shed a benignant influence 



MENTA4 PHILOSOPHY. 75 

upon the vol unsullied future. The important lessons 
thus widely proclaimed, like the good seed sown by 
the Great Teacher in the hearts of men, will meet 
with many, and of'icn with insuperable, obstacles to its 
reception ; and it may be long before it yields the 
rich and ample harvest, which it is destined, sooner or 
Liter, to exhibit. Often will they " fall by the way- 
side," unregarded and unnoticed ; often encounter the 
" stony ground " of superficial minds, delighted at 
first, and pleased with the novelty, beauty, and sub- 
limity of a captivating theory, but unfitted and undisci- 
plined to stem the torrent of ridicule or reproach ; 
and still more often will they become " choked 
among thorns," and overborne by the " cares of the 
world, the deceitfulness of riches," the lusts of power, 
and the promptings of the passions. But an unwaver- 
ing faith in the advancing progress of the higher and 
nobler elements of man's immortal nature, an un- 
douhting confidence in his capacity to achieve a final 
and complete triumph over the depressing influences 
which have hitherto weighed down the elastic energies 
of his soul, and a full reliance upon the ever-present 
blessing of the Creator, induce the gratifying conviction 
that an. abundant portion of the elevating and purifying 
principles which characterize the new philosophy, has 
been u sown on good ground," and will " bring forth 
fruit, some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundred 
fold." 

14. No one who has been accustomed to trace the 
progress of great truths in any of the various depart- 
ments of science, of morals, or of religion, as they 
have been successively unfolded to the human intel- 
lect, will indulge the apprehension that the discoveries 
of Gall and Spurzheim are permanently to he affected 
by present indifference to their value, or the interpo- 
sition of discouraging obstacles to their future promul- 
gation. Elaborated and systematized as they have 



76 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

been by the most enlightened and able philanthropists 
of Europe and America, and reduced to the compass 
of a clear, connected, and harmonious science, of 
surpassing interest and beauty, they will in due time 
assume the elevated rank to which they justly apper- 
tain. It is needless to advert to the multitude of 
instances where popular delusion, error, and igno- 
rance, have denounced and proscribed those doctrines 
and their teachers, which after ages have consecrated 
and hallowed, and the universal sense of civilized 
humanity inscribed upon the imperishable tablets of 
the intellect and the heart. Neither the comprehen- 
sive and bloody edict of Herod, nor the infuriated 
passions of the Jewish multitude, nor yet the system- 
atic and unrelenting cruelty of Nero, Tiberius, and 
Caligula, accomplished the extermination, or even the 
temporary suppression, of Christianity. Neither the 
fulminations of a powerful hierarchy, nor the maledic- 
tions of the multitude, deterred the master spirits of 
the Reformation from the prosecution of their great 
mission. The fagot and the stake, the cord and the 
dungeon, of ecclesiastical intolerance served only to 
nourish and strengthen the indestructible germ of moral 
and religious truth. Nor did the u old man elo- 
quent," who proclaimed to a benighted age the theory 
of the earth's revolution, and the laws which governed 
the motions of the planetary orbs in their courses, 
quail before the bitter storms of obloquy and persecu- 
tion which burst around his venerable head. In his 
gloomy dungeon this outcast from the pale of humani- 
ty, stricken down by the ban of a power which held 
uncontrolled supremacy over the minds of men, calmly 
looked forward to the assured recognition of his great 
discovery, and the ultimate universal acknowledgment 
of his benefactions to the race. The pages of ancient 
and modern history bear uniform testimony to the 
zeal and pertinacity with which mankind at all times, 



MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 77 

and under all circumstances of intellectual or moral 
advancement, have denounced, proscribed, and pun- 
ished their best benefactors. Notwithstanding the 
universal prevalence of this persecuting and intolerant 
spirit, truth has silently made its irresistible way ; its 
progress, though slow, has been onward ; and we are 
warranted in the belief, founded as well upon the ex- 
perience of the past as upon the eternal laws of 
rectitude, that, in proportion as the obstacles to its 
advancement, arising from ignorance, prejudice, and 
passion, are temporarily multiplied and rendered for- 
midable, its final triumph will be certain and complete. 

"Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again ; 
The eternal years of God are hers ; 
While Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 
And dies amid her worshippers." 

In this enlightened age of the world, a philosophy 
professing to embrace within its comprehensive grasp 
the highest interests of humanity, recognizing and 
confirming the great truths of revelation, and an- 
nouncing the fundamental conditions upon which hap- 
piness, virtue, and wisdom, may be attained and 
secured by each individual of the species, has nothing 
to apprehend from external violence or open persecu- 
tion. It may be passed by with contumely or neg- 
lect ; it may be rejected as unworthy of consideration 
by those who can perceive no beauty, harmony, or 
consistency with truth or reason, in its details ; it mav 
be denounced and proscribed by the ignorant, the 
superficial, and the self-sufficient ; but the physical 
and the moral power to exclude its lessons of practi- 
cal wisdom from the study and perusal of the multi- 
tude of reasoning and reflecting minds scattered over 
the broad domains of civilization, no longer exists. 
The enlightened founders of this philosophy have 
been gathered to their fathers ; but their mantles have 
fallen on those worthy of fulfilling the high mission 



78 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

with which they are charged ; men of devoted earn- 
estness and unsullied purity of character ; desirous, 
above all things, of benefiting their race both in pres- 
ent and future ages ; thoroughly conversant with the 
principles of mental and moral philosophy ; deeply 
imbued with the genuine spirit of pure Christianity ; 
and abundantly competent to the exalted task of in- 
structing and improving their fellow-men. 

15. Whatever differences of opinion may exist in 
relation to the minor details of the system to which 
we have adverted, it is undeniable that the elementary 
and essential principles of a philosophy so accordant 
with nature and truth, so intimately connected with 
the interests and welfare of every individual of the 
species, cannot fail to exert a powerful influence, 
present and prospective, on human character and 
happiness, on society, on civil and political institu- 
tions of every grade, on all the relations of domestic 
life, and, in short, on all the diversified machinery of 
civilization. A spirit of enlightened inquiry has al- 
ready gone abroad ; antiquated prejudices have been 
undermined ; a new and interesting path has been 
opened up to the investigation of man's physical, in- 
tellectual, and moral nature ; obstacles to the ascer- 
tainment of truth, hitherto deemed insuperable, have 
been removed ; and principles elucidated, which, in 
their development, promise to reduce the system of 
mental and moral philosophy to the beautiful and 
orderly simplicity of the physical sciences. The 
principles upon which the progressive improvement 
of man's complex nature depend have been thorough- 
ly analyzed, the true philosophy of education de- 
duced from sound and incontrovertible premises, and 
the capacity of each intelligent individual of the race 
to secure for himself all the blessings belonging to 
his nature, and all the happiness of which that na- 
ture is susceptible, clearly demonstrated. The heavy 



MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 79 

clouds of ignorance, which to so many thousands have 
hitherto concealed the bright sun of happiness, whose 
kindly rays might otherwise have cheered their weary 
path, may now be dissipated. The design and work- 
manship of the Creator in the formation and wonder- 
ful adaptation of that master mechanism, the human 
body, and the fixed and invariable laws of its con- 
stitution, may now be recognized and comprehended 
by multitudes whose existence has hitherto been a 
mystery and an enigma to themselves. The neces- 
sary dependence of happiness, peace of mind, and 
that deep, inward satisfaction which none but the wise 
and good experience, upon faithful obedience to the 
institutions of the Creator, may be fully appreciated ; 
and questionings and doubts heretofore springing up 
in honest hearts concerning the justice and equity of 
the moral administration of that Creator with refer- 
ence to the events of the present world — question- 
ings and doubts founded upon an incomplete and 
imperfect view of the laws of being — will be satis- 
factorily solved. By a slow and laborious, yet perse- 
vering process; by gradually displacing the numerous 
and varied theories of the past, which have served 
only to encumber and darken the portals of knowl- 
edge and wisdom ; and by careful and thorough 
observation, experiment, and reflection, a path has, at 
length, we may hope, been opened to the broad and 
solid foundations of truth and nature. Like those 
indefatigable travellers who pcrseveringly and painfully 
persisted in the immense and apparently hopeless 
labor of removing the accumulated rubbish which 
choked the entrance to the Pyramids, until their exer- 
tions were at length rewarded by the discovery of the 
magnificent chambers and wonderful architecture of 
the remotest antiquity, the founders of this philosophy, 
after long years of indefatigable research, succeeded 
in attaining a clear perception of the object of their 



80 MENT- ■. AND MORAL CULTURE. 

labors, and in indicating to those who shall come after 
them the means by which still greater and more 
important advances may be made. But, like those 
travellers, they have penetrated only to the vestibule 
of the immense temple before them ; numerous un- 
discovered apartments doubtless remain to be ex- 
plored, hidden treasures to be developed and appro- 
priated, and the specific objects and uses of the 
whole and every portion of the vast structure to be 
intelligently displayed. 

16. The goodness of Providence in the constitution 
of the moral and physical world, and in the benevo- 
lent adaptation of means to ends, is in nothing more 
conspicuously displayed than in the fact clearly un- 
folded by an intelligent acquaintance with the funda- 
mental principles of human nature, that not only the 
desire, but the abundant means of happiness, have 
been conferred upon each rational individual of the 
species — a happiness essentially independent of ex- 
ternal circumstances, springing from an internal im- 
pulse, and awakening the slumbering tones of those 
unearthly harmonies which have power to banish for- 
ever the usurpers of the moral kingdom of the soul. 
The teachings of that philosophy which exorcises the 
phantoms of passion, and the evil spirits of ignorance, 
delusion, and temptation ; which reechoes within us 
the notes of innocence, of pristine purity and unsul- 
lied vouth : which reawakens in our breasts the hish 
and holy aspirations of the spring-tide of existence, 
and renovates our wearied and care-worn spirits by 
the balmy and blessed influences of the higher and 
holier nature implanted within us, — comes to all 
" with healing on its wings." It smooths the asperi- 
ties of life's rugged journey ; causes the innumer- 
able flowers, scattered with a bountiful hand over the 
daily paths of existence, to bloom with a grateful 
fragrance and sweetness ; and diffuses over our whole 



MENTAL niiLOSOPHY. 81 

being that joy, and peace, and hope, which take fast 
hold of immortality. 

" O ! joy,, that in our embers 

Is something that doth live, 
That nature yet remembers 
What was so fugitive ! " 
* * * 

-those first affections, 



Those shadowy recollections, 
Which, be they what they may, 
Are yet the fountain-light of all our day, 

Are yet the master-light of all our seeing, 
Uphold us, cherish us, and have power to make 

Our noisy years seem moments in the being 
Of the eternal silence ; truths that wake 

To perish never; 
Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavor, 

Nor man, nor boy, 
Nor all that is at enmity with joy, 
Can utterly abolish or destroy." 

17. Whence is it that, in the advanced stages of 
existence, the " sere and yellow leaf" of our being, 
the mind so loves to linger upon the scenes and 
associations of life's opening dawn ? that the heart 
forgets its withering sorrows and its bitter experience, 
and often and fondly recurs to the elastic energies 
which prompted the glowing anticipations and bright 
hopes of childhood and innocence ? The memories 
thus invoked come to us loaded with freshness and 
fragrance ; with a vivid impression of happiness and 
enjoyment long unknown ; with the distant echoes of a 
harmony, which has ceased to vibrate upon our blunted 
senses ; with a soul-subduing gentleness, which has 
power to unseal the deep sources of feelings, whose 
destined current the cares and the passions, the 
anxieties and the sufferings, of worldly experience have 
choked and suppressed. None are so far beyond the 
pale of humanity, as to be inaccessible at times to 
these soothing and benignant influences of our myste- 
rious nature. The conqueror, in his mad career of 



82 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

crime, borne onward by tbe impetuous waves of pas- 
sion, and revelling in feverish dreams of ambition, 
power, and fame ; the miser, surrounded by his 
wealth ; the sensualist, by his luxurious appliances ; 
and even the doomed criminal, darkly brooding over 
his career of guilt, and its fearful retribution ; — to each 
and all the visions of early life, of unsullied innocence 
and undimmed purity of soul, throng upon the mind, 
insensible though it may be to every other impression 
of goodness, of beauty, or of truth. It is the feeling 
which we may imagine our first parents to have expe- 
rienced in all its intensity, when, after long years of 
wandering over the arid waste of a world no longer 
clothed, to their eyes, in its primeval freshness and ver- 
dure, they recalled the brightimage of the Paradise they 
had forfeited, — its ever-present delights, its hallowed 
scenes of quiet bliss, its unceasing strains of celestial 
harmony, and all the pure and holy influences flowing 
from the immediate and pervading presence of the 
great Fountain of life, and light, and happiness. To 
us the moral is one full of interest and instruction. 
The gardens of Paradise are open to all ; the " tree of 
knowledge of good and evil " is still standing in the 
midst; and the solemn injunction of the Creator of our 
spirits, warning us to beware lest we put forth our 
hands and take and eat of its forbidden fruit, is ever 
sounding in our ears. Shall this voice continue to be 
unheeded, and the arts of the tempter still prevail, 
until the flaming sword of the angel of retributive jus- 
tice debars us forever from the Eden of our existence ? 
Shall we not rather listen to the voice of God, speaking 
through nature and revelation ; learn to know our- 
selves, and our whole duty ; and cheerfully and intelli- 
gently fulfil the purposes and the end of our being, 
while we daily and hourly reap the rich rewards of 
wisdom and experience ? 



MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 83 

18. To the Young, — " the innocent in heart and 
soul," for whom life still blooms in all the freshness 
and beauty of hope and truth, who bask in the bright 
sunshine of moral purity and peace, little dreaming 
of the countless perils which surround them, breathing 
the ethereal odors of a Paradise they have not as yet 
forfeited, — to such how earnest, how unwearied, should 
be our constant and most impressive admonition — 
Avoid the first approaches of the tempter ; heed not for 
a wavering moment his subtle and fatal voice ; wrap 
yourselves in the sacred mantle of your innocence, 
and repose in trustful assurance upon the promises of 
the Author of your being, the Dispenser of the rich 
blessings by which you are surrounded — blessings you 
cannot now appreciate, but which once lost can never 
be recalled. The conditions of present enjoyment 
and continued happiness are clearly unfolded to your 
mental and moral perception by Him who called you 
into existence, and curiously moulded the constitution 
of your being. While those conditions are faithfully 
observed, that existence will prove a constant source 
of pleasure, an unfailing well-spring of improvement, 
a perpetual concord of sweet and harmonious influ- 
ences. Around and about you, on every hand, are 
withered hopes, blasted expectations, irremediable 
sorrow, fruitless remorse, pain, anguish, disease, pre 
mature decay and death. Hope not to disobey the 
voice of God within your souls, and to escape these 
dire and bitter consequences of transgression. The 
records of human experience, from the creation of 
the world to the present hour, furnish not a solitary 
instance of such an exemption from the penalty de- 
nounced by the voice of the Almighty. Venture not, 
then, upon the fearful and most presumptuous experi- 
ment. Walk while you may in the placid shades of 
innocence and virtue ; commune with the Being whose 



84 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

presence will surround you at all times, and whose 
blessing, " even length of days and life forevermore," 
will consecrate and reward your obedience to his 
perfect laws. 

" So live, that when the summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan that moves 
To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, 
Chained, to his dungeon ; but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasing dreams." 



FORMATION AND DEVELOPEMENT OF CHARACTER. 85 



CHAPTER V. 

FORMATION AND DEVELOPEMENT OF CHARACTER. 

1. The formation of character, from its incipient 
manifestation, through all its various stages of progres- 
sive advancement, to the period when death affixes its 
final seal to the record of human life, is subject to so 
many and such diversified influences, that any attempt 
minutely to trace its progress, or accurately to define 
the principles by which it may be regulated, must 
prove futile. Where the elements of mental and 
moral developement are inexhaustible, their arrange- 
ment in those infinitely varied combinations which 
make the character of each individual of the race so 
essentially to differ from that of every other, can be 
regarded neither with wonder nor surprise. It is a 
part of that stupendous and beautiful system of per- 
fect adaptation and boundless wisdom which prevails 
throughout the universe, as well of matter as of mind ; 
and while it effectually precludes analysis, impresses 
upon us the important conviction — a conviction which, 
amid the depressing scenes of time and sense, we are 
too often in danger of losing — that to each one of us 
is committed a peculiar destiny, which we are to work 
out for ourselves alone. While we cannot hope so to 
combine or to arrange the materials of mental growth 
and progress, which lie scattered in such boundless 
profusion around us, as to discover all their peculiar 
adaptations in the wonderful and mysterious fabric of 
existence, we may, perhaps, attain to some concep- 
tion, however inadequate, of the solemn responsibility 
involved in the daily and hourly discharge of the 



86 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

duties appertaining to human life ; of the worth and 
intrinsic value of the soul, its powers, capabilities, 
origin, and destination ; and the nature of that prepara- 
tory discipline, to which, in its present stage of being, 
it is, in the order of Providence, subjected. 

2. From the cradle to the grave, the elements both 
of the physical and the moral world, which constantly 
surround us, are perpetually undergoing transmutation 
and change. Like the ample volume of the atmos- 
phere, which presses upon us with an equal weight on 
every hand, those particles which are present, with an 
all-pervading influence, at one moment, are instantane- 
ously succeeded by others in their turn ; while the former 
have rushed onwards with an undiminished current to 
permeate the broad surface of humanity. Not unfre- 
quently, the most apparently trifling events are fraught 
with the most momentous issues to the determination 
of character, as well as to the fortunes of individuals 
and the welfare of society. So finely spun is the web 
of human destiny, so interwoven and interlaced in 
endless diversities of combination, that nothing visible 
or audible, occurring in the wide expanse of nature 
and of art, can be said to be wholly without influence 
upon even its most casual observer. That overruling 
Providence, without whose special ordinance and note 
" not a sparrow falleth to the ground," in its supervis- 
ion of the boundless universe, so adjusts the harmoni- 
ous play of myriads of worlds and of systems, with 
their infinity of existences, to the apparently fleeting 
interests of time, and the most apparently trifling con- 
cerns of individuals, that " even the very hairs of our 
head are numbered ;" and those occurrences which, in 
our ignorance and our weakness, we are accustomed 
to deem the merest chances of the passing hour, are 
dependent upon principles and subjected to laws as 
invariable and unchanging as are those by which the 
*' stars in their courses " fulfil their appointed rounds. 



FORMATION AND DEVELOPEMENT OF CHARACTER. 87 

If we will consent to pause in our thoughtless and care- 
less career sufficiently long to apprehend the solemn and 
doeply interesting truth, shall we not rind reason to be- 
lieve that, at every instant of our lives, we are encom- 
passed by innumerable agents, seen and unseen, silently 
weaving the thread of our destiny, and imperceptibly 
directing the current of our fate ? Shall we not be con- 
vinced that, while the vast operations of creative wisdom 
and goodness are guided and directed with a view to 
the grand results of the combined whole, yet that no 
incident is permitted to occur within the range of our 
individual perception, which has not its special mission 
for us, and which does not, in some manner, immedi- 
ately or remotely, affect our interests and well-being ? 
In a word, shall we not find that we are surrounded 
with solemn, but eventful mysteries, moving among 
scenes and associations of momentous import to our 
destiny, and daily and hourly shaping the character 
of an existence which is to know no termination ? 

"Millions of spiritual beings walk the earth 
Unseen, both when we sleep and when we wake." 

3. Whoever is accustomed to even an occasional 
process of self-examination cannot fail to have been 
conscious of the presence of powerful influences, which, 
from time to time, have affected his mind and swayed 
his actions, and given a more or less permanent hue 
to his character — influences, perhaps, which, " come 
like shadows, so depart," from the world of imagina- 
tion, from the regions of the ideal, from the variegated 
and changing face of Nature, in her agitation and re- 
pose, her sublimity and her beauty ; often too subtile 
to be detected and fixed in the mind, or to be recalled 
or traced to their source, and yet imbibed as a con- 
stituent portion of that mental and moral aliment upon 
which the soul exists, and from which, by its own 
intrinsic power, it derives the elements of progress and 
of growth. If, therefore, we would investigate those 



88 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE, 

elements of character which are best adapted to the 
harmonious developement of all the various faculties of 
our nature, — if we would direct the future pilgrim of 
humanity in that straight and narrow path which leads 
to life, and pleasantness, and peace, — we must descend 
at once to the deep fountains of the soul, and pene- 
trate, so far as we may, through the aid of revelation 
and a sound philosophy, into the sources of human 
motive and conduct — the invariable well-spring of 
character and destiny. That mental culture which 
has been formed and is maturing upon foundations 
less solid, deep, and durable, than those which underlie 
the entire surface of humanitv, is destitute of those 
elements of power, of expansion, and of strength, 
which are requisite to the perfect developement of the 
faculties with which every intelligent and responsible 
being has been endowed. Perfection or perfectibility 
has been written, in legible characters, on every ema- 
nation of creative wisdom and power ; and we are 
not, for a moment, to indulge the idea that, in its 
greatest work, — the birth of humanity in the image 
and with the benediction of its Author, — a work de- 
signed to survive the catastrophe of the universe, and 
to exist when time itself shall be no longer, — any in- 
superable obstacle has been interposed to the ultimate 
attainment of the highest objects of intellectual, moral, 
and immortal being. 

4. The earliest and most enduring foundations of 
character are laid in the unrestrained intercourse of the 
family circle, and in the institutions for elementary in- 
struction. The ideals of excellence and the motives for 
exertion are first conceived from the lessons and the 
examples of home ; and, whatever may be the ten- 
dency of the influence thus exerted, it is so far per- 
manent, that nothing less than a complete revolution 
in character, effected by years of counteracting im- 
pressions, and the slow process and painful results of 



FORMATION AND DEVELOPEMENT OF CHARACTER. 89 

experience, can efface the deep traces of its inscription 
on the mind and of its supremacy over the life. The 
natural and irresistible impulse of the child prompts 
him not only to venerate, but to imitate, to the extent 
of his capacity, the character, the habits, and the pur- 
suits, of the parent ; to mould the energies and the 
faculties of his own mind upon the model thus con- 
stantly before him ; and to adopt, as the standard of 
his attainments, the intellectual and moral excellences 
or defects which are daily and hourly exhibited to 
his view. The same principle, although greatly 
modified in degree, prevails on the transfer of the 
child from the domestic hearth to the elementary 
school. The teacher succeeds to the authority and 
influence of the parent, while a new and vitally im- 
portant element of progress is added in the intimate 
association which springs up with other and differ- 
ently constituted minds. It is at this period that moral 
impressions are made with the greatest facility, and 
take deepest root. The earlier or later developemcnt 
of the intellectual faculties depends upon a variety of 
causes, wholly or chiefly disconnected from the moral 
sentiments ; and while the former are stimulated to 
action by their own intrinsic energy, or by the numer- 
ous objects of the external world, the latter are con- 
stantly and necessarily excited and affected by the 
passing incidents of each successive day and hour, 
and gather from thence those materials which are to 
compose the fabric of character. The adhesive te- 
nacity with which first impressions retain their influ- 
ence over the youthful mind, renders it morally cer- 
tain that no subsequent developement, resulting from 
the experience of maturer years, will effectually oblit- 
erate those lessons, which, imbibed in the purity and 
innocence of childhood, sink deepest into the mind 
and m st permanently imbue the heart. Well would 
8 



90 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

it be for the interests of humanity were parents and 
teachers more generally aware of the powerful ele- 
ments of moral culture which they directly and indi- 
rectly control ; of the solemn responsibilities of their 
position, and of the blessings which they might diffuse, 
the evils they might avert, and the lasting benefits 
they might confer upon civilization and Christianity, 
by an enlightened and conscientious discharge of the 
high duties they have assumed. 

5. It is, however, always to be borne in mind, that 
the distinctive feature of humanity is individual respon- 
sibility, and its great characteristic, the capacity for 
indefinite progression. To an extent greater than 
most of us are aware, each individual is the artificer 
of his intellectual and moral, no less than of his mere 
worldly, destiny and fortune. The vast disproportion 
between the infant mind of the future philosopher or 
statesman, and the same mind in the full maturity of 
its strength and greatness, affords abundant testimony 
of its intrinsic capacity for advancement. Obstacles 
there may and will be to be encountered and sur- 
mounted. Each individual of the race finds himself, 
at every period of his life, surrounded by circum- 
stances and events peculiar to his own condition, and 
demanding the exercise of a determination and a will, 
for which he alone is intellectually and morally re- 
sponsible. The developement and culture of the 
mental faculties, and the consequent formation of 
character, are advanced by all the influences which 
are derivable from the external world of matter and 
of mind. To escape companionship with evil, we 
must indeed go out of the world : nor can that char- 
acter be regarded as of a high order, which fears to 
face temptation, opposition, or error, whenever and 
wherever duty and truth require. It is from the prev- 
alence of vice, of suffering, and of misery, that oppor- 
tunities are afforded for the exercise of the greatest 



FORMATION AND DEVELOPEMENT OF CHARACTER. 91 

virtues ; and it is in the midst of a scene of trial, sur- 
rounded by guilt, by ignorance, and by error, that we 
are required to bring into active exertion those nobler 
principles which constitute the true elements of moral 
and mental greatness. 

6. The general diffusion and progressive advance- 
ment of an enlightened civilization, based on the prin- 
ciples of a sound philosophy, and illuminated by the 
steady rays of Christianity, constitute an important ele- 
ment in the formation and developement of character. 
That condition of society in which the supremacy of 
the moral sentiments, if not, in all respects, practi- 
cally carried into the conduct, is still universally rec- 
ognized in theory, and uniformly inculcated by pre- 
cept, is at an immense remove, in all that constitutes 
the well-being of individuals or communities, from 
that where lawless force predominates, and where 
each individual and each interest is regarded by com- 
mon consent as the legitimate prey of superior phys- 
ical strength, cunning, or craft. In the former, while 
the faculties of the intellect and the affections of the 
heart are expanding into those principles of action 
upon which the superstructure of the future character 
is to be erected, the pervading stimulus of public sen- 
timent, as expressed in the writings, the discourses, 
and conversation, which the influential minds of the 
community are constantly giving forth, will so far for- 
tify and strengthen virtuous resolutions, as to render 
them impervious, to a very great and steadily increas- 
ing extent, to the otherwise potent force of the vicious 
examples which are too frequently presented in the 
busy scenes of life. In the latter, the effect is directly 
the reverse ; and the " still, small voice " of wisdom 
and of truth is sure to be fearfully overborne by the 
overwhelming predominance of the selfish and animal 
propensities, incessantly excited into undue activity by 
the powerful fascinations of popular applause, and un- 



92 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

restrained by public sentiment. The moral and intel- 
lectual atmosphere which pervades a community 
where the great results of science, the well-grounded 
inductions of a rational philosophy, and the funda- 
mental truths of revelation, are duly appreciated, ig 
eminently favorable to the highest self-culture. The 
passions and propensities of the animal nature are 
more easily subdued and restrained ; the innate dignity 
of humanity is more readily perceived and acknowl- 
edged ; and the mind, sustained and invigorated by 
a clearer conviction of the intrinsic value of sound 
knowledge and moral discipline, if not as an end, yet 
as a constantly progressive and infinite series of means, 
steadily enlarges its powers, and extends its views 
over the broad and illimitable surface of thought and 
action. 

7. The almost inconceivable multiplication of the 
means of knowledge which have resulted from a few 
of those great discoveries and inventions which imme- 
diately preceded the revival of civilization at the close 
of the fifteenth century, has, within the compass of 
comparatively a brief period, effected a radical revolu- 
tion in the mental and moral, no less than in the 
physical world. The heavenly bodies, from an " o'er- 
hanging firmament" of glittering stars, upon which the 
vivid imagination might inscribe and perpetuate the 
fabulous legends of traditionary lore, or superstitious 
awe or crafty guile attempt to decipher the hidden 
secrets of futurity, or to interpret the awful scroll of 
destiny, have become the vast theatre of Omnipotent 
Wisdom and Goodness — the outer courts of immen- 
sity — the entrance chambers to that universe " whose 
centre is every where and its circumference nowhere." 
The earth, from an extended succession of hill and 
valley, designed for the support of the vegetable, min- 
eral, and animal creation, and resting upon some mys- 
terious and undiscoverable foundation, has become the 



Formation and developement of character. 93 

external surface of one of the smallest of the planetary 
orbs, subjected to the intermittent action of pent-up 
elements, and the varying effects of a series of organic 
influences, which have for ages been engaged in mod- 
ifying and changing its physical condition, and accom- 
plishing the ulterior purposes of Providence in respect 
to its destination. The elements, from the dread min- 
isters of wrath, have been transformed into the power- 
ful but obedient servants and instruments of mind. 
The various properties of matter, from themes of bar- 
ren and profitless speculation, have been converted 
into efficient attributes of practical science and attrac- 
tive philosophy. 

8. A transformation, not indeed so complete, but no 
less important, has been effected in the moral world. 
The highest good is no longer placed, even by the 
most superficial and least reflecting mind, in the grati- 
fication of the appetites and passions. The prompt- 
ings of a higher nature are recognized, however dimly 
and inefncaciously, by the lowest order of intellect, 
and in the humblest department of the great social 
organization. The destructive conflicts of physical 
force, which during so long a period have desolated 
the earth, are rapidly disappearing, and giving place to 
the more powerful energies of mental competition. 
The master-spirits of the civilized world — those who 
wield the truncheons of command, and exert the widest 
sway over the destinies of nations and of individuals — 
are no longer the crowned heads, or the " great cap- 
tains," but the philosopher, the statesman, the artist, 
the discoverer, and the teacher — those who, from the 
central and commanding eminence of some great and 
enduring principle, have spoken in their might to the 
sympathetic hearts and minds of the multitude, either 
directly or through the intervention of the gifted few 
who have caught, and faithfully transmitted to the 
universal ear, their " thoughts that breathe and words 



94 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

that burn." It is in the midst of this progressive civili- 
zation, where, by a law of the moral world as inflexi- 
ble and certain as those which govern the universe 
of matter, the vital principles of true wisdom, which 
have been discovered and applied by the pioneers 
of the mind, must ultimately pervade the entire 
mass, that the superstructure of character may be 
expected to assume its noblest and most harmonious 
proportions. 

9. The highest results of civilization can be attained 
only under the guidance and pervading influence of 
pure Christianity ; and the religious principle is, un- 
questionably, by far the most potent of the various ele- 
ments which enter into the composition of character. 
This is the ultimate principle to which all of true 
greatness which the world has ever witnessed, or will 
ever witness, must be referred ; and it is because, and 
only because, this principle, in all its beauty and sub- 
limity, as defined and illustrated by the Great Teacher, 
has never been fully apprehended, that the highest at- 
tainments of science, the profoundest speculations of 
philosophy, the widest range of thought, and the 
utmost energy of action, have hitherto failed to accom- 
plish those ends, in the elevation and advancement of 
humanity, which they were designed to subserve. 
That religion, alone, which inculcates " peace on 
earth and good-will to men ;" whose Founder an- 
nounced, and in his own person exemplified, the 
future life, its principles, its purity, its " exceeding 
great and precious promises ;" which imbodies in its 
precepts and its doctrines the cardinal principles of 
mental and moral progress, and the results of a wis- 
dom immeasurably transcending that of earth in its 
highest flight ; that religion, alone, which, while it 
tasks the noblest faculties of the most comprehensive 
intellect, adapts its teachings to the earliest apprecia- 
tion of infantile innocence, and the most immature 



FORMATION AND DEVELOPEMENT OF CHARACTER. 95 

capacity of guileless simplicity, — can effectually dis- 
cipline and mould the character to the accomplishment 
of its high destinies. 

10. The view which each individual takes of his 
own origin, the objects and purposes of his exist- 
ence, his ultimate destination, and the conditions 
upon which his well-being here and hereafter depends, 
necessarily exerts a pervading power over his life, 
whether of action or of thought. If he faithfully 
strives to bring into harmonious accordance the con- 
victions of his understanding and the successive events 
of his existence ; to reconcile his ideal standard of 
duty with the practical discharge of his various obliga- 
tions to his Creator, to society, and to mankind ; and 
to carry out, amid the disturbing influences of the 
world without, and of his own heart within, the princi- 
ples which his unclouded judgment has sanctioned and 
adopted, — the progressive developement and healthy 
growth of his intellectual and moral being will be in- 
evitable and rapid. On the other hand, if he proves 
false to those convictions, — if the promptings of his 
better nature, the " voice of God within his soul," 
the admonitions of conscience, and the dictates of 
his highest reason, are disregarded or subordinated 
to the imperious requisitions of the passions, — the 
effect upon the gradual elaboration and final direction 
of the character is equally certain and equally rapid. 
There is another phase of mental phenomena, which 
most frequently presents itself to our observation, con- 
stituting a medium between these two extremes, and 
resulting in that apparent indecision or inconsistency 
of character which seems to defy all attempts at 
analysis, and renders its ultimate tendency dependent 
upon the final predominance of the good or the evil 
principles which maintain an incessant struggle for 
supremacy over the life. However frequent or rare 
the alternations of victory, or prolonged the triumph 



96 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

which either principle may achieve, the effect upon 
the character is equally pervading and equally impor- 
tant. 

11. All external human action, and consequently 
the entire web of human life, as it manifests itself in 
conduct and character, emanates from mental voli- 
tion ; and that volition is determined by a mental pro- 
cess, more or less complicated in proportion to the 
energy, strength, and comprehensiveness of the intel- 
lectual and moral faculties, and the discipline to which 
they have been subjected. A deep and pervading 
sense of the presence, and an enlightened conception 
of the attributes and moral government of the Omnipo- 
tent and Omniscient Spirit of the universe, furnish 
motives and incentives to a course of action, from the 
earliest dawn of moral responsibility to the close of our 
earthly existence, which no other source can supply ; 
and if to these be superadded the sanctions which rea- 
son and revelation have unfolded, based upon the im- 
mortality of the soul and a future existence, a direc- 
tion is given to the character and the life, and an in- 
tensity and energy of purpose, and an inflexibility of 
will conferred, which subjects all minor considerations 
to the paramount supremacy of duty and conscience. 

12. There is no page in the history of mankind 
upon which we dwell with deeper interest, and to 
which we more often recur when we desire to strength- 
en our faith in the intrinsic nobility of our nature, than 
that which records the trials, the reverses, the suffer- 
ings, and the martyrdom of the devotees to great prin- 
ciples ; the triumph of mind, in its integrity and its 
fidelity to truth and duty over the combined elements 
which oppose its upward progress ; and the resulting 
harvest of knowledge, and of mental and moral ad- 
vancement, which invariably spring up from the good 
seed thus sown. On the other hand, there surely 
can be no more melancholy reflection than that which 



FORMATION AND DEVELOPEMENT OF CHARACTER. 97 

is induced by the contemplation of the long annals of 
vice and crime, of violence and guilt, which form the 
great staple of written and unwritten history ; the prod- 
uct of ignorance, of error, and of undisciplined pas- 
sions ; the rank and poisonous weeds of the rich, but 
untitled soil of the human mind. The universal dif- 
fusion of Christianity throughout the civilized world ; 
the numerous and varied illustrations of its principles 
and doctrines, which an increasing appreciation of its 
intrinsic excellence and true value is constantly sup- 
plying ; and the periodical enforcement of its solemn 
and interesting truths, which the several denominations 
of worshippers at one common altar have established 
and secured, — afford abundant facilities for the inhala- 
tion of the purest element of intellectual and moral 
growth. Undoubtedly, many minds of native vigor 
and strength are induced to avoid this unfailing well- 
spring of mental excellence from early prejudice, 
from the lamentable perversion of the precepts of 
Christianity, or from the still more lamentable, be- 
cause more pervading and comprehensive, feuds and 
collisions of religious sects. A judicious and salutary 
discrimination, however, and a sincere and earnest 
desire to pursue the narrow but clearly defined path 
of true wisdom, will not fail to dictate a conscientious 
adherence to the spirit and the truth of inspiration, 
when once its authenticity and its source are deter- 
mined. These, the almost unanimous acquiescence 
of the highest minds, during a period of eighteen cen- 
turies, while it cannot and does not exclude the obvi- 
ous and paramount necessity of personal and thorough 
investigation, places beyond the pale of a rational 
skepticism. 

13. The successive events and changing vicissitudes 
of life variously modify and deeply affect the forma- 
tion of character. There are few subjects of renec- 
9 



98 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

tion more sublime than that which is presented by the 
infinite diversity which pervades the physical and 
moral universe. So far as our limited faculties are 
able to discern, no two objects in the vast immensity 
of creation, from the least of those atoms which are 
revealed by the microscope to the most distant of the 
orbs which astronomical science has brought within 
the range of human vision, are in all respects uniform, 
either in their structure, or in the objects they are 
designed to subserve. The boundless resources of 
creative wisdom and goodness are nowhere more 
distinctly perceptible than in the wondrous adaptation 
of the various faculties of the mind to the external 
world, and to the moral administration of a superin- 
tending providence. There are the most abundant 
reasons for believing that every incident in the life of 
the humblest as well as of the most exalted individual, 
every action which he is called upon to perform, nay, 
perhaps every thought of his heart, every emotion, 
every impulse of his moral nature, may exert, directly 
or indirectly, an influence not only upon his own well- 
being, but upon the well-being of some, at least, of his 
brethren of the human family. Upon himself, that 
influence, whatever it may be, enters into, and forms 
a component part of his character; and, fugitive and 
evanescent as may be its immediate effect, becomes 
part and parcel of his moral being, and can no more 
be resolved into non-existence, than a particle of 
matter can disappear from the physical universe. 

14. But it is with more exclusive reference to those 
strongly defined events of life which cross the path of 
all, and form prominent landmarks on the surface of 
existence, that allusion has been made to this element 
in the formation and modification of character. 
Whether we regard the revolutions in the history of 
empires, nations, communities, or individuals, which, 



FORMATION AND DEVELOPEMENT OF CHARACTER. 99 

in their results, effect a radical change in the course 
of events by which they were preceded, or those less 
striking, because more common incidents, which are 
daily and hourly transpiring, and which affect the 
lives, the health, the fortunes, and the happiness of 
mankind, — it is certain that each of these events, as 
it occurs, marks an epoch of greater or less impor- 
tance in the developement of our moral being. The 
uses of adversity, and the ministration of sorrow, of 
pain, of crosses, and of disappointment, are manifold 
and salutary. The ravages of death, in all its various 
forms, nipping the opening blossom of infant existence, 
striking down the youth in his prime, and the man in 
his maturity, sundering the dearest ties of life, or 
gathering into its granary of mortality the aged u like 
shocks of corn fully ripe," — whenever and wherever the 
bolts of the great destroyer are sped around us, — " must 
give us pause" in our onward progress, and recall us 
to salutary reflections, and a sober review of the 
various problems of our mysterious being. In the 
temporary abstraction from the busy avocations of 
time and sense which events like these induce, — brood- 
ing over the ruptured and bleeding tendrils of affec- 
tion, of hope, and of anticipation, — while in beautiful 
accordance with those organic laws of the mental as 
well as of the physical constitution which the Crea- 
tor has benevolently adjusted to the requirements of 
our nature, the wounds of the heart have time to 
cicatrize, and its sundered ligaments to readjust them- 
selves, — a renovating process is accomplished in the 
character and the life. We feel that " a change has 
come o'er the spirit of our dream," that we are not, in 
all respects, what we were ; and when we go forth 
again to mingle with the busy current of humani- 
ty, it is with a chastened appreciation of its true value, 
and an increased conviction of " what shadows we 
are, and what shadows we pursue." 



100 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

" One adequate support 
For the calamities of mortal life 
Kxists — one only — an assured belief 
That the procession of our fate, howe'er 
Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a Being 
Of infinite benevolence and power, 
Whose everlasting purposes embrace 
All accidents, converting them to good." 

15. To conclude : the noblest attainment in the 
process of that enlightened discipline of the intellectual 
and moral faculties, which constitutes character, is 
undoubtedly to be found in the abiding and pervading 
influence of that catholic spirit of active benevolence, 
comprehensive charity, and imperturbable equanimity, 
which, recognizing in every individual of the human 
family, however low or degraded, the ineffaceable 
stamp of a common brotherhood, knows how to make 
due allowance for the infinite diversity of circum- 
stances and condition, and, in the habitual and cheerful 
discharge of every individual, social, and moral duty, 
calmly reposes in the undoubting assurance of an ever- 
present Providence. To a mind so disciplined, the 
manifold voices of nature are attuned to a harmony 
refined, elevating, grateful, and accordant with every 
faculty. 

u Not a breeze 
Flies o'er the meadow — not a cloud imbibes 
The setting sun's effulgence — not a strain 
From all the tenants of the warbling shade 
Ascends, but whence his bosom can partake 
Fresh pleasure unreproved." 

The vivid enjoyment of an existence invigorated by 
the free exercise of its own buoyant energies, en- 
lightened and directed by progressive knowledge, 
undisturbed by the tumults of passion, and finding its 
appropriate and genial aliment in the cultivation and 
developement of its higher nature, and of all the virtues 
and graces of humanity, while it constitutes and se- 
cures our highest happiness, fulfils the objects and 



FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER. 101 

purposes of that being which was conferred upon ug 
by our Creator. 

16. It is a beautiful provision of our nature, fraught 
alike with intimations of its immortality, its native 
grandeur, and upward tendency, that visions of greater 
excellence than any we can realize in our every-day 
life; aspirations for a higher and a nobler sphere of 
action than we find attainable within the confined 
limits which encompass us on every hand ; and a faint 
appreciation of ideal beauty and sublimity, which yet, 
with our limited faculties, we cannot hope, except in 
imagination, to comprehend or to realize, — often hover 
around us in our better moments, and seem, as with the 
whisperings of angels' voices, to bring us the intelli- 
gence and the foretaste of a brighter and purer world. 
There are depths in the mind of every intelligent hu- 
man being to which the shafts of philosophy have 
never yet penetrated ; wells of living water, whose 
sources lie concealed far beneath the visible surface 
of character or emotion, which nevertheless are acces- 
sible to him who faithfully explores the deep mysteries 
of his being, and which, when touched by the magic 
wand of truth and nature, can cause " the wilderness 
and the solitary places" of passion, of error, and of 
guilt, to " bud and blossom as the rose." " There is a 
one heart for the whole mighty mass of humanity, and 
every pulse in each particular vessel strives to beat in 
concert with it.'" That millions of the race pass 
through the world in ignorance of the capabilities of 
their nature, of its innumerable chords of harmony, 
and its myriad sources of enjoyment, — and that mil- 
lions, perhaps, in all coming time, will overlook the 
flowers of happiness scattered in bounteous profusion 
around their daily path, in the vain pursuit of unat- 
tainable and imaginary sweets, — militates in no respect 
against the truth of this sentiment ; and, while the 
reflection that this is, and will be, the wayward fortune 



102 MENT.-.,., AND MORAL CULTURE. 

of humanity, should induce deep humility in view of 
the errors, frailties, and weaknesses of our common 
nature, the expanding circle of light, increasing by 
little and little with every revolution of the wheels of 
lime, may hopefully be deemed the harbinger of a 
brighter and better day. " The Eden of human 
nature has indeed long been trampled down and 
desolated, and storms waste it continually : neverthe- 
less the soil is still rich with the germs of its pristine 
beauty ; the colors of Paradise are sleeping in the 
clods ; and a little favor, a little protection, and a 
little culture, shall show what once was there ! " 



INCONSISTENCE OF CHARACTER. 103 



CHAPTER VI. 

INCONSISTENCY OF CHARACTER. 

1. The beautiful fiction pervading the ancient ori- 
ental mythology, which recognized the existence and 
alternate influence of two opposite powers, the one of 
good and the other of evil, faithfully imbodies the re- 
sult of human wisdom, unenlightened by inspiration, 
in its attempts to comprehend the physical and moral 
government of the universe^ The harmony and beauty 
which every where prevail in the material world, and 
the wonderful and mysterious adaptation of the innu- 
merable works of creation, above^ around, and beneath 
us, to the purposes they were designed to subserve, 
manifest, to the most ordinary intellect, a comprehen- 
sive benevolence, an omnipotent wisdom, and an all- 
pervading presence. In proportion as the powers and 
faculties of the mind expanded to a more enlarged 
apprehension of those principles, the conviction of 
an infinite and boundless beneficence would become 
more and more irresistible ; and if, at times, the in- 
comprehensible combination of the elements assumed 
a fearful and appalling shape, spreading devastation 
and terror around, and frightening the astonished na- 
tions from their propriety, the controlling influence 
which restrained the wildest fury of the storm, the 
earthquake, or the tornado, and prescribed its limits, 
is recognized as a spirit of goodness, as well as of 
power. The invariable succession of the seasons ; 
the grateful alternations of light and darkness ; the 
regular arrival of seed-time and harvest, summer and 
winter, day and night, were felt to be the gifts of a 



104 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

benevolent being ; gifts subservient to tbe constant 
requirements of the intelligent creation, and wisely and 
mysteriously adapted to every circumstance of life. 
There was nothing in the vast range of creation spread 
out to view, from the illimitable expanse of the 
universe of worlds and systems of worlds revolving 
around, to the countless myriads of existences diffused 
throughout the immensity of space, and imperceptible 
to ordinary vision, which did not indicate the universal 
prevalence of infinite wisdom, combined with infinite 
love. The earliest legends, and the most cherished 
and ineradicable traditions of every nation, and every 
people of whose existence we have been apprized, 
have coincided with the record which Christianity rec- 
ognizes as of undoubted inspiration, in the belief that 
the primitive condition of the human race was one of 
unmingled happiness, innocence, and purity. Equally 
general and universal has been the belief, that this en- 
viable state of felicity was almost immediately super- 
seded by a lamentable contrast ; that a spirit of evil 
interposed its fell power to blast the prospects of 
humanity, and wither its fairest flowers of hope ; and 
that an unequal struggle has from thenceforward been 
maintained, throughout all succeeding time, between 
two powers of immortal origin and co-existent nature, 
for ascendency over the present and future destiny of 
the intellectual and moral faculties of man. Nor is it 
at all surprising, that the most superficial observation 
should have been early struck with the disparity so 
strikingly manifested between the natural and the 
moral world ; or that it should have attributed the pre- 
dominance of evil in the latter to the deleterious influ- 
ences of a power acting in diametrical opposition to 
that which presided over the former, and countervailing 
its efforts for the elevation and purification of the affec- 
tions and the lives. 

2. History, observation, and experience, alike com- 



INCONSISTENCY OF CHARACTER. 105 

bine to teach us that there is a constant struggle going 
on in the mind of man, under almost every conceiva- 
ble circumstance and situation in life, between its 
higher nature and its prevailing inclination — its up- 
ward tendency and the powerful current of passions 
which sweeps it onward to degradation and ruin. By 
the proper cultivation of our intellectual and moral 
faculties, and by availing ourselves of the benignant 
influences by which we are every where surrounded, 
" both when we sleep and when we wake, 1 ' we find 
ourselves abundantly capable of attaining to a high 
appreciation of our nature, the great purposes of our 
existence, and our final destination. The path of duty 
is plainly marked ; the avenues which lead to happi- 
ness are invitingly open ; and we are well assured, in 
the striking and forcible language of the greatest of the 
prophets, that " the work of righteousness shall be 
peace, and the effect of righteousness, quiet and assur- 
ance forever. 11 Every dictate of our unprejudiced and 
sober judgment prompts us to avoid the degrading and 
withering influences of vice, and guilt, and crime. 
They are all and each unworthy of our noble and up- 
ward-tending nature ; they convert the harmony, and 
beauty, and magnificence of creation into discord, dis- 
order, and confusion; they blunt, the finer perceptions 
of the mind, and pervert the best and purest affections 
of the heart, and they lead us, by little and little, from 
all those sources of enjoyment which were designed 
by the Creator of our spirits to cheer the rugged paths 
of life, and conduct us, through the " beggarly elements 
of this present world, 11 to another and a better exist- 
ence hereafter. All these considerations are con- 
stantly pressing upon us, with a force proportioned 
to their vast importance ; and yet how inconsiderable 
a portion of our lives exhibits their operation ! How 
insensibly and how naturally, it may almost be said, 
how unavoidably, do we relapse from the deliberately 



106 MENTAL AND MORAL CLLTCRE, 

formed resolutions of our better judgment and better 
nature, to the weaknesses and frailties, the errors and 
omissions, the evil passions and corroding vices, which 
sink us to the level of the " brutes that perish." With 
an abundant appreciation of the dignity and excellence 
of virtue, — fully realizing the "daily beauty" of an 
innocent and a blameless life, and its comparative ex- 
emption from all those manifold sources of anguish, 
and bitterness, and trouble, with which the world is 
full, forcibly apprehending the capabilities of our in- 
tellectual and moral powers to assert their superiority 
and predominance over the vicious propensities of our 
nature, — we yet worship the radiant image of virtue 
and purity at a distance, while we bring all our choicest 
and most valuable gifts, and lay them upon the altars 
we have consecrated to worldly ambition, avarice, and 
passion. We leave the paths of innocence when we 
lay aside the sports and pursuits of childhood ; and 
we open the book of knowledge, imbibe the counsels 
of wisdom and experience, and bring forth from the 
repositories of the past the varied lessons which they 
contain, only to burden our consciences, at the last, 
with the additional and fearful responsibility involved 
in a clear perception of our duty, and our guilt. " We 
know the right, and yet the wrong pursue." In our 
closets, and in the secret meditations of our hearts, 
the " still, small voice " of wisdom and of truth admon- 
ishes us that we are but " strangers and sojourners " 
for a brief and rapidly passing season here ; that to 
us is committed a high and a glorious mission, and for 
us is reserved a destination surpassing our most ex- 
alted conceptions ; that even here, in these low grounds 
of flesh and sense, and surrounded on every hand by 
the corrupting influences of perverted and misapplied 
humanity, — innocence and integrity, humility and sim- 
plicity, lead to happiness and peace of mind ; and that, 
unequal as may be the struggle, and painful and ex- 



INCONSISTENCY OF CHARACTER. 107 

hausting the contest with the evil principles of our 
nature, the victor's crown may be won at last, and the 
struggle and the contest forgotten in the triumphant 
result. Armed at all points with a philosophy so no- 
ble and so congenial to our best feelings, we go forth 
into the busy world with a serene brow and a purified 
heart, with a full determination to resist the first ap- 
proaches of evil, to discharge our whole duty, to 
walk in the narrow path of innocence and upright- 
ness, and to illustrate and adorn the capabilities and 
excellences of our immortal nature. Alas ! for the 
inconsistency and waywardness of the human charac- 
ter ! A host of evil passions, whose name is Legion, 
beset us on every hand ; unexpected obstacles are 
interposed to our best and strongest resolutions ; our 
judgment becomes suddenly and fatally perverted ; 
our medium of vision deplorably obscured ; the world 
asserts its power, and we look in vain for the soothing 
and renovating influences of that harmony which shall 
again restore our spirits to peace and quietness. 

3. Those who fancy the existence of unmitigated 
and irredeemable evil in any of the human race, how- 
ever abandoned, are unacquainted with the mysterious 
depths of the heart of man. Such an hypothesis has 
no foundation in experience, in reason, or in Scripture. 
There are those who seem, indeed, to have prostituted 
all the energies of their nature to the influences of 
vice and crime — who are apparently abandoned to all 
sense of virtue, of morality, or religion — dead even to 
remorse, and wholly removed, so far as human pene- 
tration can discover, beyond all the restraints of con- 
science, and all dread of retribution here or hereafter ; 
and yet we are clearly guilty of unauthorized pre- 
sumption in denouncing the ban of humanity upon the 
heads of the most irreclaimable of our species. The 
best of men are not exempt from grievous and deplo- 
rable error ; and the lesson most strikingly and forcibly 



108 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

impressed upon his followers by Him, who only, of 
all the dwellers upon earth, was exempt from human 
frailty, was that of uniform forbearance in judging of 
the character of others, and of solemn warning against 
an uncharitable condemnation of their actions or mo- 
tives. 

4. Passing from the field of sacred to that of profane 
history, we are frequently presented with striking con- 
tradictions and contrasts of character, for which we 
shall often labor in vain to account, upon the ordinary 
principles of motive and action. A few of these must 
suffice for the illustration of the subject under consid- 
eration. No individual of ancient times appears to have 
approximated in a greater degree to the sublime and 
elevated standard of Christian philosophy, or to have 
attained to a more correct appreciation of the beauty 
and value of moral truth and virtue, than Socrates. 
His clear and powerful intellect dispersed at once, 
with scarcely an effort, the mists and shadows which 
ignorance and superstition had for ages accumulated 
in the mental and moral horizon ; and he was enabled 
steadily to look upon the bright beams of that fcC Sun 
of Righteousness, 1 ' which was destined, at a later 
period, to transmit its rays to the human family, unob- 
structed by the intervening clouds of superstition and 
error. To him it was permitted to look beyond the 
" chances and changes of this mortal life," to another 
and a better state of existence, to a far distant future, 
where the mind and the soul should develope all their 
powers, and fulfil a destiny for which the narrow 
boundaries of time and the encumbrances of mortality 
were unfitted. All the varied evils of life passed him 
by only to strengthen his virtuous resolutions and pu- 
rify his mental vision ; and the near prospect of an 
undeserved and an ignominious death served only to 
bring out, in all their beauty and sublimity, those 



INCONSISTENCY OF CHARACTER. 109 

priceless treasures of a philosophy revealed to him 
alone, and exceeded only by its fuller manifestation in 
the revelation of the Saviour's gospel. And yet, with 
all these elevating: truths struggling for utterance with- 
in his mighty mind — amid the full perception of the 
beautiful and the true — this extraordinary and gifted 
philosopher found himself unable, at the last, to aban- 
don the senseless idolatry of the age in which he lived. 
"While his clear and unperverted intellect recognized, 
and his pure and enlightened heart worshipped, from 
its inmost depths, the " Unknown God," his latest and 
most urgent directions to his friends were to sacrifice, 
in his name, upon the idolatrous altars of an absurd 
and baseless mythology. 

5. It is needless to do more than refer, on this occa- 
sion, to the weaknesses and inconsistency of character 
exhibited bv the illustrious Roman orator : at one time 
electrifying the senate and people by the brilliancy 
and the power of his unrivalled eloquence, and at 
another wasting the energies of his intellect in the 
most puerile and unmanly complaints at the fancied 
neglect of his countrymen, and the vicissitudes of an 
untoward fortune ; now treading, with equal and digni- 
fied steps, the loftiest and most commanding heights 
of philosophy, and now abjectly shrinking from the 
" pitiless peltings " of the storm, whose fierce ele- 
ments, unconscious of their power, he had, with a 
characteristic vanity, contributed to gather over the 
horizon of his country's hopes. But as the eventful 
and variegated scene drew to a close, his better angel 
triumphed. There was too much of elevation, too 
much of purity, too much of ingenuous simplicity and 
sterling worth of character, hopelessly to sink before 
the " evil spirits 1 withering thrall," and with a mournful 
presentiment of the calamities which were impending 
over his beloved Rome, and which he could no longer 



110 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

avert, he submitted with dignity, and without a mur- 
mur, to his inevitable fate. 

6. To come down to a later period : who is not 
familiar with the deplorable frailty which cast a deep 
shade over the high character, and imbittered the 
latter days of that great man, who was at once the 
pride and bulwark of the English chancery, and the 
ornament of human nature ? With an intellectual ca- 
pacity of surpassing breadth, and depth, and clear- 
ness ; with faculties capable of perceiving and ana- 
lyzing, at a glance, the nost abstruse and complicated 
moral and metaphysical problems, yet unable to resist 
the insidious approaches of corruption, and lending his 
powerful mind to the operation of the most unworthy 
and degrading influences ! 

7. The gifted sons of genius — they of the " eagle 
eye and tireless wing," who have soared far beyond 
the ordinary flights of the intellect — frequently afford 
but too melancholy an illustration of this inconsistency 
of character in the waywardness and perversity of 
their career. We are indebted for many of the most 
noble, exalted, and pure strains of devotion and piety, 
in " words that breathe and thoughts that burn," to 
those whose lives were little in accordance with the 
elevation of their intellectual conceptions and mani- 
festations. Notes of surpassing sweetness, harmony, 
and power, have but too often emanated from minds 
where the undying vulture of remorse has fastened its 
restless beak. Thousands of unperverted hearts have 
responded in raptures to the unearthly aspirations and 
sublime imaginings of bards, who, at the moment, per- 
haps, were revelling in the wildest excesses of the 
bacchanalian feast, and whose high talents were pros- 
tituted at the lowest shrines of vice and guilt. The 
glowing imagery and immortal thoughts, which are 
destined to stamp their indelible impress upon sue- 



INCONSISTENCY OF CHARACTER. Ill 

ceeding minds in all coming time, are often, like the 
costly gems of the Indian sea, formed and matured 
by the incessant irritation and diseased action of the 
vital faculties. 

8. Nations and communities, as well as individuals, 
furnish instructive illustrations of this peculiarity of 
character. To go no farther than our own continent, 
what strange infatuation must have taken possession 
of the strong-minded and clear-headed band of Pil- 
grims, flying from religious persecution in their native 
laud, when they unfurled the banner of intolerance in 
that of their adoption, ere its soil had been fairly re- 
claimed from its savage occupants ? For the sake of 
worshipping the common Father according to the dic- 
tates of their own conscience, and of enjoying their 
religious creed free from molestation or arbitrary pro- 
scription, they counted no sacrifice too great. The 
disruption of all the ties which connected them with 
the land of their birth and the associations of their 
early years, the voluntary abandonment of all the 
blessings of civilization and refinement, of country and 
of home, for the known perils of the ocean passage, 
and the unknown dangers, and toils, and privations of 
the wilderness in a far distant land, — -all were over- 
looked and disregarded in view of the promised bless- 
ings of civil and religious liberty — ^a boon justly re- 
garded as beyond all price, and for the attainment of 
which no exertions could be misapplied. The enter- 
prise was, indeed, a noble one ; nor did the Pilgrim 
Fathers of New England over-estimate its importance 
to themselves, to their country, or to posterity. But it 
is deeply to be regretted that these single-minded and 
hardy pioneers of the North American forests should 
have esteemed it necessary, in the prosecution of their 
mission of civilization on the shores of this new world, 
thus early to erect the standard of persecution for con- 
science' sake, and to reenkindle the fires of intoler- 



112 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

ance, for the suppression of what they too, in their 
turn, deemed heresy. Various apologies have, in- 
deed, from time to time, been devised in their behalf, 
derived from the peculiar situation of the infant colony, 
and the uniform and prevailing practice of the age. 
The phenomenon is one, nevertheless, so strongly 
marked, and so wholly at variance with the line of 
conduct which ordinary reasoning would seem to have 
dictated, that it may be enumerated as one of those 
instances of inexplicable inconsistency of character so 
often to be met with in individuals, and from which 
nations and communities are by no means exempt. 

9. " What a piece of work is man ! How noble in 
reason ! how infinite in faculties ! in form and moving 
how express and admirable ! in action how like an 
angel ! in apprehension how like a God ! And yet 
what is this quintessence of dust ? " " With the tal- 
ents of angels," men may, and often do, "become 
fools ! " They press onward and onward in their de- 
luded career, and while blindly pursuing the vain 
phantoms of the world, plunging deeper and deeper, 
at every step, into the gloomy recesses of vice, they 
yet bring their accustomed oblation to the altars of 
virtue, and wonder that they hear not the responses 
which greeted their ears in the early days of innocence 
and peace. In their blindness, ignorance, and fear, 
they are tempted, like the warrior king of Israel, to 
invoke the awful spirit of the buried past ; they desire 
to look into the impenetrable future, to unveil the 
records of destiny, and read the hidden counsels of 
fate. The phantoms thus presumptuously invoked a 
disordered imagination brings up in fearful array, and 
they shrink in terror from the withering rebuke of 
their own awakened consciences. Well will it be, if, 
with David, through tribulation, and sorrow, and an- 
guish of mind, comfort and peace may at last be at- 
tained ; satisfied how little is known of the mysterious 



Moral responsibility. 113 

depths of the human heart ; how illusory and how vain 
are all the dreams of perfection here below ; how 
transitory and fleeting the best resolutions; how con- 
tradictory and inconsistent the moral and mental char- 
acter of man ; and how deplorable the waywardness 
and perversity of conduct and action manifested under 
the most favorable condition of our nature. 

10. The existence and the predominance of moral 
and physical evil, in a world where all things else bear 
the impress of unbounded and limitless benevolence, is 
a problem which it is not given to philosophy to solve. 
We may speculate upon the deep mysteries of crea- 
tion and providence ; we may task our intellectual 
powers to their utmost tension, in our vain endeavors 
to analyze the elements and trace the movements and 
the laws which control " this brave, o'erhanging firma- 
ment, this majestical roof, fretted with golden fires ; " 
and we may, which is far better, silently, and thought- 
fully, and reverentially, wonder and adore, where we 
may not comprehend ; but we cannot " put forth our 
hand, and take of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, 
and eat and live forever," until the promised advent of 

" that glorious day, 
When, throned on Zion's brow, 
The Lord shall rend the veil away 
That blinds the nations now." 

11. The time has been, and that at no great dis- 
tance from our own days, when the multiplied discov- 
eries of science, in the natural and physical world, and 
the researches and speculations of philosophers in the 
world of mind, were deemed alike at variance with 
the paramount authority of revelation, and as, at 
best, an attempt on the part of presumptuous and mis- 
guided men to attain to the knowledge of that which 
transcended the limited prerogative of humanity. It 
seems now, however, to be conceded that true sci- 

10 



114 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

ence, whether physical, intellectual, or moral, cannot, 
by any possibility, be at variance with revelation, in 
any of its forms. Truth is uniformly and necessarily 
consistent with itself. While, therefore, the imperative 
dictates of sound philosophy command us to reject 
any and every hypothesis of science, ethics, or morali- 
ty, which contradicts the authentic testimony of reve- 
lation, a reverential and sacred regard for truth and 
nature calls upon us, in an equally authoritative man- 
ner, to reject such an arbitrary interpretation of the 
latter as shall be found unwarranted by reason, obser- 
vation, and experience, and contradictory to the direct 
evidence of our unperverted senses. Interpretation, 
only, is to be subjected to this discriminating process ; 
for an enlightened and attentive investigation and ex- 
amination of the respective claims of natural and re- 
vealed knowledge will show them to be uniformly and 
invariably consistent and harmonious in every essential 
requisite. The imperishable tablets of the Christian faith 
can never be marred or dimmed by their contact with 
true science, sound philosophy, and advancing civiliza- 
tion and knowledge. On the contrary, the law and the 
testimony there inscribed by the finger of Almighty 
Wisdom, will become the more legible, luminous, and 
clear, in proportion as they are subjected to the tests 
of an expanded and enlightened observation, the prac- 
tical deductions slowly evolved from the experience of 
ages, and the progressive discoveries in science and 
the arts. They have nothing to fear from the utmost 
advancement of human wisdom and improvement ; 
and it is only when the pestilential miasma of passion, 
guilt, and crime, sheds its baleful influence over the 
human intellect, obscuring its perceptions, blighting its 
energies, and perverting its developements, that we 
are called upon to draw the line of demarkation be- 
tween religion and science, reason and revelation, 



MORAL RESPONSIBILITY. 115 

the God of the Bible and the Author and Disposer 
of nature. 

12. When we look abroad upon the troubled ocean 
of human life, and witness the constant and restless 
agitation of its surface, strewn with the melancholy 
wrecks of ages, — now dashing into fragments many 
a noble and stately bark freighted with the highest 
hopes of nations, communities, and individuals, — and 
now whelming under its impetuous and undiscerning 
billows the nameless, humble, and obscure voyager 
upon its trackless path, experiencing, in its ceaseless 
commotion, apparently no interval of repose, and no 
relaxation of its mad impulses, — we may well ask our- 
selves what power, short of Omnipotence, can control 
its excited and turbulent career, or say to its rebellious 
i'ury, " Thus far shalt thou come, but no farther ; and 
here shall thy proud waves be stayed ! " There is a 
point beyond which philosophy cannot penetrate ; 
where reason and intellect, and all the faculties of the 
human mind, are powerless and impotent ; and where 
nothing remains to the loftiest genius, in common with 
the humblest and most uninstructed range of thought, 
but to wonder, to adore, and submit. Even the hu- 
man mind — that most stupendous workmanship of in- 
finite wisdom — that emanation from the Divine es- 
sence — has its laws, which it cannot disobey, if it 
would — its limitations, which it may not overoass. 
There are mysteries connected with our existence 
here which eternity alone can solve ; relations which 
flesh and blood can never penetrate ; links which 
earthly vision can never discover ; causes beyond the 
cognizance of mortality, and effects incapable o*f be- 
ing fully traced by any intellectual powers conferred 
on mere humanity. It is idle — it is worse than idle ; 
it is impious — to indulge the vain fancy that any con- 
ceivable advancement of the race in wisdom, any pos- 
sible condition of society, or any attainable purifica- 



116 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

tion of the grosser elements of our nature, can suffice 
to perfect our knowledge of the moral government of 
the world in which we live, or initiate us into the 
grand scope and ultimate designs of the Creator, in 
the multifarious and complicated labyrinths of human 
existence and destiny. 

13. Nor is it in any degree necessary, for our hap- 
piness here or our welfare hereafter, that the inscruta- 
ble records of the Book of Fate should be exposed to 
our view. It requires but a brief experience to enable 
us to comprehend the existence, and become aware, 
in some small degree at least, of the influence of those 
elementary laws of being which circumscribe us on 
every hand ; to learn that it is only by a general obe- 
dience to these laws that we can secure an exemption 
from the most formidable evils which encompass us ; 
and to be assured that, by a systematic and habitual 
neglect, or a gross infraction of any of these laws, we 
incur a penalty proportioned to our departure from 
their requirements. It is only necessary to extend, 
and faithfully apply, the principle thus deduced from 
our ordinary experience, to enable us to arrive at the 
more important, but not less obvious inference, that the 
laws thus prescribed are uniform in their operation, 
invariable in their nature, unyielding and inflexible in 
their demands upon our obedience, and admitting of 
no departure from their requisitions, however incon- 
siderable, without exacting the penalty. But this is a 
conclusion by no means intuitively, or without diffi- 
culty, attained in practice, under the most auspicious 
and favorable circumstances incident to humanity.- 
The records of history, and the process which passes 
within our own breasts, as leaf after leaf of the volume 
of existence is unfolded to our perception, demonstrate 
that the lessons which brins; with them increased wis- 
dom, increased knowledge of the human heart, in- 
creasing happiness and progressive virtue, are slowly 



MORAL RESPONSIBILITY. 117 

and painfully evolved from the shattered wrecks of the 
past, from the consequences of manifold and long 
aberrations from rectitude, from incessant observation 
and combination of the diversified elements of experi- 
ence, and from a bitter, but thorough, novitiate in the 
stern school of adversity and suffering. Of the hun- 
dreds of millions of human beings whom each succes- 
sive generation, as it passes on, sends " to take their 
places in the halls of death," how comparatively few 
is the number of those who have been able to solve 
the deep problem of their own existence and being, or 
to ascertain and apply the unvarying and necessary 
connection between the laws of nature and of its Crea- 
tor and the enjoyment of happiness ! how vast the 
number of those who have ignorantly or presumptu- 
ously, but constantly, violated those laws, and paid the 
bitter penalty in wretchedness and misery, physical 
and mental, protracted with occasional and evanescent 
intervals of comparative enjoyment to the verge of a 
longer or shorter career ! 

14. We are unwilling to concede, at least to the ex- 
tent claimed by some severe moralists of every age, 
the existence of those moral and intellectual phenome- 
na, which have afforded frequent and mournful themes 
for the indignant reprobation of the wise and good ; 
where the path of duty has been plainly apprehended, 
the guilt and the consequences of a departure from it 
clearly perceived, and yet that departure deliberately 
determined upon, and persisted in, with a full knowl- 
edge that happiness and peace, innocency and virtue, 
were irrevocably renounced. We are disposed to 
view the melancholy obliquities of our common na- 
ture in a more favorable and charitable light, and to 
attribute the lamentable dereliction from its original 
purity, which the world has ever witnessed, and which 
succeeding ages will probably long continue to wit- 
ness, rather to ignorance of the fundamental laws of 



118 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

being than to a bold and enlightened, but most pre- 
sumptuous defiance of those laws, with a clear appre- 
hension of the inevitable consequences. It cannot be, 
that a reasoning, intelligent, and well-balanced mind, 
should voluntarily choose to descend from the proud 
eminence of virtuous innocence to the lowest depths 
of profligacy and vice ; or that a human being, en- 
dowed with the most perfect physical organization, 
and painfully alive to the nicest sensibilities of its na- 
ture, should not only look with indifference upon a life 
of protracted suffering, opening no vista of hope, and 
admitting of no alleviation or solace this side of eter- 
nity ; but should, as the result of his unbiased will 
and free choice, link his destiny to such a career of 
ignominy and degradation, so withering, so hopeless, 
and so accursed by God and man. It is believed that 
no one can discover, upon the most faithful examina- 
tion of his own mental and moral faculties, any well- 
founded conception, any feeling or emotion corre- 
sponding to a principle so revolting to humanity, any 
law of his own being from which he can legitimately 
infer a result so deplorable. The Author of our ex- 
istence has, indeed, rendered such a combination 
morally impossible. It would be in palpable and di- 
rect opposition to all we know, or can, upon rational 
principles, conceive, of Infinite Benevolence and Wis- 
dom, that seeks only the highest good of all its sub- 
jects ; it would present an anomaly in the moral 
machinery of the universe, — the intermingling of ele- 
ments, in one common nature, in irreconcilable enmity 
with each other, governed by contradictory laws, and 
leading to the most opposite and discordant results. 
That " the heart of man is deceitful, above all things, 
and desperately wicked," — that its every " imagination 
is evil, and that continually," the experience of all 
ages, and the solemn declarations of revelation, coin- 
cide in establishing ; but we may surely be indulged 



MORAL RESPONSIBILITY. 119 

in the supposition, that the depravity and wickedness 
which have uniformly characterized mankind, have not 
been of that deep dye which fully comprehended and 
deliberately rejected its own highest happiness, which 
clearly discerned the inevitable retributions of disobe-; 
dience, and yet. " rushed upon the thick bosses of the 
buckler" of the avenger. We are aware that this is, 
in some measure, debatable ground ; but we are also 
aware that its boundaries have not been so strictly 
defined, as to preclude us from the effort to reclaim 
millions of benighted wanderers from the heavy impu* 
tation of apostasy from the pale of humanity. While 
we cannot but lament the deplorable infatuation which 
has deprived the great mass of our fellow-men, in 
every age, of the natural heritage of happiness, be^ 
stowed upon them at their birth, and condemned them 
to misery and remorse, and the complicated ills of a 
degenerate world, we may, at least, be permitted to 
indulge the consoling reflection, that this severe and 
calamitous portion was not the necessary result of a 
nature altogether perverted from its original purity, 
and wholly incapable of producing less bitter fruits, 
In our investigations into the motives, conduct, and 
character of our fellow-men, it is much wiser, and far 
less dangerous, to err on the side of charity and mer- 
cy, than their opposites ; and certainly, if it be our 
aim to advance the standard of intellectual and moral 
improvement, and to elevate the condition of our spe- 
cies, it is equally unphilosophical and unjust to as- 
sume, in the outset, that the task is hopeless and im- 
practicable, 

15. The conclusion to which these observations 
tend is obvious. Man is susceptible, in his own proper 
nature, of the highest intelligence, virtue, and conse- 
quent happiness, which was originally bestowed upon 
humanity by Creative Wisdom and Benevolence ; but, 
by reason of his peculiar mental and moral organiza- 



120 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

tion, adapted to progressive advancement, but left 
free to work out its own destiny, and, in consequence 
of the powerful and constantly accumulating evil in- 
fluences which surround him from infancy, he con- 
tracts, insensibly, and at a very early period, the ten- 
dency to go astray from the narrow and restricted 
path of duty. The impulse which hurries him on 
from one successive step to another of error, guilt, 
and retribution, is seldom, if ever, the result of his 
own deliberate choice and unbiased will, acting under 
an intelligent and enlightened knowledge of the laws 
of being, and of the consequences of their infringe- 
ment. He is impelled by the operation of strong and 
unchecked passions, the consequences of a neglected 
or perverted education, in some of its numerous forms, 
and from ignorance, in a great measure, of his own 
nature, capacities, and destination, inability to with- 
stand temptation, and the presence and influence of a 
great variety of powerful external and internal im- 
pulses ; the voice of reason, judgment, and often of 
conscience, is gradually and imperceptibly stifled ; the 
intellectual functions transmit erroneous information; 
the moral faculties lose their ascendency ; and the 
empire of the mind degenerates into hopeless anarchy 
and inextricable confusion. 

16. From this view of the subject, the immense im- 
portance of an enlightened and extended system of 
physical, intellectual, and moral education, is obvious — 
one by which, at the earliest period when such knowl- 
edge can be comprehended, we may be accurately 
informed of the peculiar constitution of our nature, 
its powers and faculties, their modes of manifestation, 
and their various operation, whether in accordance 
with their own innate force, or influenced by the ex- 
ternal world of matter or of mind. Upon this broad 
and comprehensive foundation a superstructure may 
be reared, of solid and durable materials, 'fitted to re- 



MORAL RESPONSIBILITY. 121 

sist the incessant elemental warfare of the passions, 
and providing an impregnable rampart against every 
hostile attack. If it be true, that the great mass of 
crime and wretchedness, of suffering and of woe, with 
which earth is tilled, may be traced, directly or re- 
motely, to ignorance ; if it be also true, that all the 
happiness and enjoyment, of which humanity is sus- 
ceptible, proceed from and are the invariable and 
necessary result of an adherence to the laws impressed 
by the Creator upon all the workmanship of his hands ; 
and if, moreover, such an adherence is entirely prac- 
ticable and attainable, and becomes, instantly, its own 
reward, considerations of the most solemn and mo- 
mentous import, as well to ourselves as to the race to 
which we belong, and involving the welfare of the 
present and of future generations, impel us to begin 
the great work of an education which shall be com- 
mensurate with our high nature and destiny, and 
which shall enable us so to live as to secure the ut- 
most happiness of which our being is susceptible. 

17. But we are met upon the threshold of our in- 
vestigations into this subject by a multiplicity of objec- 
tions, founded upon its visionary and theoretical na- 
ture ; its want of adaptation to the present, or any 
reasonably probable condition of society, and its utter 
impracticability in a world constituted as we find ours 
to be, and where so much of evil and so little of good 
prevail. We are told that man is now, after the 
lapse of some sixty centuries, the same, in all essential 
respects, as when the race was first created ; that 
during the intermediate time, worldly wisdom, at least 
equal to any of which the present days can boast, 
has illumined the moral and intellectual waste which 
has ever existed ; and repeated and clear revelations 
from Heaven been communicated and disseminated, 
wherever civilization had penetrated ; and that it is 
11 



122 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

absurd to suppose lhat the heated imaginations and 
enthusiastic dreams of a few secluded philosophers 
or peripatetic philanthropists of the present century 
should have discovered the grand arcanum, for which 
ages upon ages have so laboriously and fruitlessly 
toiled — the attainment of a pure and unvarying stand- 
ard of happiness and enjoyment — the solution of the 
deep, and hitherto inexplicable mystery, which hangs 
over the troubled dream of life. Many of these ob- 
jections are plausible, at least, and deserving of seri- 
ous consideration ; others are believed to be unfound- 
ed in their assumptions, vague and inconclusive in 
their deductions, and baseless in their conclusions. 
They must be met, however, and, if possible, satisfac- 
torily refuted. 

18. Nothing, certainly, can be more erroneous, or 
less in accordance with the truth of history, when phil- 
osophically regarded and thoroughly analyzed, than 
the inference that mankind have hitherto made no 
progress in substantial knowledge, virtue, and happi- 
ness. On the contrary, there can be no doubt that, in 
exact proportion as civilization lias extended itself, and 
facilities for the ascertainment and application of 
physical, intellectual, and moral truth been afforded, 
the condition of the race has been sensibly amelio- 
rated, and the happiness of individuals and the wel- 
fare of communities promoted. Without attempting, 
at this time, to trace the rapid progress of science and 
the arts, which accompanied the advancement of the 
Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, and many of the 
nations of the East, in even the imperfect civilization 
to which they were able to attain, during, compara- 
tively, an early period of the world's history, or the 
elevation and purification of manners and morals 
which distinguished the prevalence of such temporary 
periods of refinement and relaxation from bloodshed 
and civil and foreign war, as the turbulent ambition of 



MORAL RESPONSIBILITY. 123 

the ruler permitted, the introduction of Christianity, 
and its immediate and resulting consequences, furnish 
abundant materials for a triumphant refutation of the 
objection under consideration. The rapid dissemina- 
tion of the Scriptures over a great portion of the civil- 
ized world laid the foundation for an indefinite pro- 
gression, not only in all those refinements and graces 
which communicate to society so much of its value 
and usefulness, but also in all those virtues of the 
heart which make up the sum of individual and gen- 
eral happiness. This progression has, indeed, been 
slow and gradual, often, for a long succession of years, 
and even of centuries, imperceptible and impalpable ; 
but although its effects were not visible upon the sur- 
face of society, and although the precepts of Chris- 
tianity were but imperfectly comprehended at best, 
and not unfrequently grossly perverted to a convenient 
and authoritative subserviency to the ambition, the 
interest, the profligacy, and oppression of the scourges 
of mankind, its influences were, nevertheless, silently 
preparing the way for the regeneration of the race. 
The mighty tide of intellectual, civil, and moral im- 
provement, which burst upon the nations at the close 
of the fifteenth and the commencement of the sixteenth 
century r , was the sudden and overpowering triumph of 
the long repressed, but steadily accumulating energies 
of the human mind, expanded by the effectual work- 
ings of pure Christianity in the minds of the multitude 
and their leaders and guides. And who will main- 
tain that the condition of society and of individuals, 
wherever the light of intellect, civilization, and Chris- 
tianity has extended, is not now incalculably superior, 
in all the elements which constitute scientific and 
moral power, than when the era of the reformation 
dawned, or when its triumph, in the effectual prostra- 
tion of the " gods of the old idolatry " was completed ? 
If, then, from the earliest periods to which history 



124 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

conducts us, we are enabled to trace a gradual, but 
palpable advancement in knowledge, and wisdom, and 
power ; if the accumulated stores of experience, the 
ample and comprehensive truths of revelation, the 
constant observation of Nature, in her manifold forms 
and combinations, and the successive and permanent 
discoveries of science and of art, have accomplished 
the great work of communicating to man even an in- 
distinct and imperfect knowledge of his powers and 
faculties, and have demonstrated his capacity for, and 
his tendency to, improvement and progression, the 
argument based on an opposite conclusion falls to the 
ground. 

19. It is further urged against the adoption of the 
views we have been endeavoring to expound, that it is 
unreasonable and absurd to suppose that the great and 
the good of former ages, in their unwearied search for 
the elements of virtue, the secret of happiness, and 
the keys of knowledge, should have overlooked or dis- 
regarded principles so fundamentally connected with 
the well-being and progress of the race. So far as 
this objection refers to the great moral lessons sought 
to be inculcated, it is wholly destitute of foundation in 
fact. In every age of the world a voice has gone 
forth, from the commissioned oracles of the Almighty, 
proclaiming the supremacy of the moral nature, an- 
nouncing its divine origin, its limitless capacities, its 
high responsibility, and its immortality. The unvary- 
ing testimony thus borne to the truth, in all times, and 
among every people, remains unshaken, either by the 
mode of its reception, or the fruit which it has pro- 
duced. The good seed has been abundantly scattered, 
wherever humanity has existed to be invigorated by 
its influences ; and if the soil, through inattention, 
neglect, or unenlightened culture, has failed to pro- 
duce the expected harvest, that failure must be at- 
tributed to its legitimate source. When, however, we 



MORAL RESPONSIBILITY. 125 

consider this objection with reference to the progress 
of scientific knowledge generally, it is undoubtedly 
true that we of the present century are in possession 
of results intimately affecting our individual and social 
welfare, which were not only wholly unknown for a 
long succession of ages, but beyond the conception of 
the wisest philosophers and most finished scholars of 
ancient times. Scarcely four centuries have elapsed 
since the discovery of the art of printing and of the 
mariner's compass — events which have exerted such 
an immeasurable influence on the diffusion of knowl- 
edge and the advancement of civilization ; and in less 
than half that period a complete and most beneficial 
revolution has been effected in the cultivation of the 
whole circle of arts and sciences, by the substitution 
of the inductive philosophy of Bacon for the vague 
theories and unfounded generalizations of the masters 
of the schools. The motions of the heavenly bodies, 
the laws by which their magnificent evolutions are 
governed, and the relations which our own planet sus- 
tains to the universe of worlds around us, are of com- 
paratively recent discovery. The sciences of chemis- 
try, mineralogy, and geology, so intimately identified 
with a rational knowledge of the powers, resources, 
and elements of external nature, are as yet in their 
infancy ; and the relative influences of organic and 
inorganic matter, of man and all the vast machinery 
of the material world which surrounds him, are only 
beginning to be comprehended and appreciated. How 
important, then, that our minds should be ever open 
to the unprejudiced reception and dispassionate con- 
sideration of truth, under whatsoever guise it may pre- 
sent i'self, and however much it may conflict with our 
preconceived ideas ! 

20. Considered with reference to ourselves alone, 
the knowledge of our nature, and of the immutable 
laws of the Creator stamped upon it, involves interests 



126 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

of the most momentous magnitude. But when we 
consider the subject on a more extended scale, and 
with reference to the whole family of man ; when we 
look forward to the influence which an enlightened 
understanding of the laws of intellectual and moral 
being shall exert, in all coming time, upon the happi- 
ness and destiny of the human race ; to the elevation 
of our common nature, which must inevitably follow 
from obedience to the dictates of unperverted reason 
and undoubted revelation; to the high standard of 
moral virtue and sound philosophy, which a consum- 
mation so grand and desirable cannot fail to induce ; 
the achievements of intellectual greatness and strength 
for which the past has been distinguished in the annals 
of science and of history, will be seen to bear no com- 
parison to the vast and comparatively unexplored field 
which lies in all its magnificent grandeur before us. 
What has been accomplished will be regarded as the 
elementary studies of the infancy of the race ; the 
preparatory discipline and instruction which precedes 
the work of education. What remains to be accom- 
plished will be looked upon as the great and worthy 
business of a life which is to experience no termina- 
tion ; a work to be commenced here, but carried on 
throughout the limitless ages of eternity. It is thus 
that we are to accomplish the gradual purification of 
our nature from the multiplied corruptions which 
must surround it, in its best estate, in this present 
world, and its perfection in another state of being, 
where its energies will be permitted indefinitely to 
expand themselves, unalloyed by the baser influences 
to which its earthly associations are constantly tending. 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 127 



CHAPTER VII. 

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 



1. The great experiment of self-government, con- 
ceived and carried into execution by the American 
people, on the broad basis of free institutions, has fully 
realized the most ardent hopes of the friends of ration- 
al liberty in every section of the globe. To perpetu- 
ate those institutions ; to carry out, in its most ex- 
tended details, the grand scheme of republican free- 
dom ; and to disseminate throughout the vast borders 
of our Union the full enjoyment of those blessings 
which are secured by our unequalled form of govern- 
ment, not only constitutes the duty, but should form 
the highest pleasure and ambition, of every patriotic 
mind. That these desirable objects may be fully 
attained, the more general diffusion of knowledge, 
throughout every avenue of society, is indispensably 
requisite. It is not enough that every citizen should 
possess the rudiments of learning, or that amount of 
instruction and information, merely, which will enable 
him to transact the ordinary business of life, for this 
would be to make the great cause of mental and moral 
improvement stationary. The requirements of the 
age, the exalted position we occupy as a nation, the 
hopes and anticipations we have excited, and the rich 
promises our past history has given, alike forbid us 
to repose upon the laurels we have already acquired, 
or to rest contented with the standard of excellence to 
which we have attained. We owe it to those who 
shall succeed us in the enjoyment of the noble inherit- 
ance bequeathed to us by the men of the revolution, 



128 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

that the rich soil of civil and intellectual freedom shall 
be cultivated to the extent of the means in our power ; 
that the capabilities of the unfettered mind shall not be 
retarded or obstructed, in the pursuit of its high desti- 
nies, by the withering influence of ignorance, or the 
poisonous exhalations of vice. 

2. The continued prosperity and onward career of 
nations depend upon the wise and proper use of their 
own energies. The seeds of their dissolution are in- 
deed within themselves ; but the fruits of anarchy, 
licentiousness, civil broils, and ultimate destruction, 
spring not up until the soil is prepared by the fatuity 
and mismanagement of those most deeply inter- 
ested in the result. The splendid superstructure our 
ancestors have reared ; the unparalleled prosperity 
which has hitherto attended the operations of our civil, 
religious, and social polity ; the mighty improvements 
which the present century has witnessed in the arts 
and sciences ; and the elevated position we have been 
enabled to occupy among the nations of the world,— 
all these commanding advantages impose upon us re- 
sponsibilities which can be met only by the consecra- 
tion of our best faculties and unremitted exertions to 
the cause of individual and national happiness, knowl- 
edge, and improvement. We need not be told of the 
dangers which surround us, in exact proportion to the 
continued success of the bold experiment upon which 
we have ventured. We need not be pointed to the 
melancholy examples which crowd the pages of an- 
cient and modern history, to warn us against the ener- 
vating influences of uninterrupted prosperity. Ma- 
terially as our institutions differ, in their essential 
features, from those of any preceding age, and striking 
as may be the contrast between the present and the 
past, — in all that concerns us most to know, the consti- 
tution of human nature remains unchanged ; and the 
admonitions of wisdom and experience, and the ready 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 129 

suggestions of our own minds, combine to teach us, 
that on the prevalence of virtuous dispositions and the 
spread of an intelligent and cultivated public senti- 
ment, the great foundations of our liberties and privi- 
leges must forever rest. This cardinal truth cannot 
be too often or too forcibly impressed upon our popu- 
lation. The very assent which every reflecting mind 
gives to a proposition so well understood, and so obvi- 
ously correct, may have a tendency insensibly to 
weaken its practical importance, and to prevent the 
energetic adoption of those effective measures which 
alone can test our abiding sense of its soundness and 
vitality. Were it even possible for the complicated 
machinery of government to go on, and the fabric of 
our institutions to be preserved against the attacks of 
foreign or domestic enemies and the corroding effects 
of time, without the progress of knowledge or the 
presence of an enlightened and uncorrupted state of 
morals and civilization, of what avail would be the 
barren pride of national existence ? Who would prize 
the beautiful and polished casket, in the absence of 
the rich treasure it was formed to enclose ? 

3. In the progress of our national history, we have 
now arrived at a point where it becomes our impera- 
tive duty to pause, if need be, in the career of opu- 
lence, and energy, and enterprise, which has hitherto 
marked our course, and enter upon a new and not less 
delightful and useful field of labor ; to exchange the 
empire of matter, at least to the extent to which it has 
heretofore engrossed our attention and occupied our 
time, for the empire of mind. Our institutions are 
now placed, by the wise and enlightened policy of the 
successive statesmen who have graced the republic 
from its birth, upon a permanent and abiding basis. 
Our foreign relations are those of uninterrupted peace 
and amity, and no apprehensions exist of any impor- 
tant change in this respect for the future. Our inter- 



130 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

nal polity is conducted, in all its extended details, with 
perfect harmony and unity, diffusing all the blessings 
of a well-ordered and effective government through 
the various ranks and occupations of society. The cur- 
rent of our prosperity as a people, though agitated 
occasionally by those fluctuations incident to all great 
combinations of the elements of wealth, yet flows on in 
a majestic and resistless tide, enabling the most un- 
bounded enterprise to compass its ends, and the most 
inordinate ambition for gain to hope for the fulfilment 
of its aspirations. No more favorable opportunity 
could be presented for the cultivation of those sub- 
stantial qualities which are to form the basis of our 
future and permanent prosperity, to direct the minds 
and mould the character of the rising generation, and 
to disseminate far and wide the seeds of those endur- 
ing virtues, upon which the character and future pros- 
pects of our republic are to depend, when the heads 
and the hands which now sway its destinies shall be 
mouldering in the grave. 

4. If we are wise, considerations of the highest im- 
port will induce us to watch over the early develope- 
ments of mind in those whose education is committed 
to our charge ; to strengthen those propensities which, 
when matured, are to contribute to the happiness and 
well-being of the human race ; to check, in their bud, 
those dispositions which, in their growth, will cast a 
dark shade over the prospects and hopes of the future ; 
to foster those institutions of learning where all that is 
valuable in after life receives its germ ; and to elevate 
and purify the fountains of public sentiment from 
which proceed those streams of influence, action, and 
motive, which irrigate and fertilize, or render deso- 
late and barren, the extended field of civil and social 
intercourse. We are all of us deeply sensible that 
upon the judicious cultivation of the intellectual and 
moral faculties of our nature, much, not only of useful- 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 131 

ness, but of happiness and enjoyment, depends. If 
the mind is suffered to run to waste, and the weeds of 
vice to spring up unchecked and undisturbed, the or- 
dinary occupations and pursuits of life, the race of 
ambition, the exertions for wealth, the innumerable 
sources of pleasure, cannot restore the healthful tone 
of contentment and peace which is forever lost. We 
have it in our power to do much to relieve the society 
which is destined to succeed us from the evils which 
are now experienced. Whatever course we adopt, 
our impress for good or for evil must be left upon the 
characters and the minds of those who will follow us 
on life's busy stage, and we cannot be indifferent to 
the future, if we would. We should appreciate cor- 
rectly the position which we occupy, and the convic- 
tions of our judgment should assume a more prac- 
tical cast, and induce more systematic and energetic 
efforts in the discharge of the high duties incum- 
bent upon us. 

5. The untiring philanthropic enterprise of the pres- 
ent age has evinced its zeal for the more extended 
and general diffusion of knowledge, under circum- 
stances apparently the most unpropitious to its full 
accomplishment. In many parts of Europe, where 
the human mind has been fettered and enslaved for 
centuries by the iron domination of feudal and aris- 
tocratic institutions, the unaided energies of a few 
comprehensive and benevolent minds have laid the 
foundations of an enlarged and practical system 
of moral and intellectual education upon the broad 
basis of republican equality. In Prussia, Switzer- 
land, Scotland, Holland, and more recently in France, 
the attention of government, as well as of individuals, 
has been drawn to the early cultivation of the human 
mind, and to the encouragement and liberal support 
of institutions established for this great purpose. In- 
dividuals of commanding talents and undoubted abili- 



132 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

ties have devoted, in many instances, their lives and 
fortunes to the amelioration of the condition of the 
human species, by the judicious and expanded devel- 
opement of their mental, social, and physical faculties. 
Schools of superior excellence and discipline have 
been established and maintained for a long series of 
years, and the results of this persevering and elevated 
system have far surpassed the hopes and expectations 
of its most devoted friends. In some instances, the 
alarm and jealousy of the constituted authorities have 
been excited at the rapid progress of sentiments and 
principles, whose ultimate tendency they could not fail 
to perceive was unfavorable to the permanency of the 
present order of things ; but the public sentiment was 
found to be so strongly enlisted in favor of the contin- 
uance of a system of instruction so admirably adapted 
to the requirements of the age, that all opposition 
proved unavailing, and the governments themselves 
gradually afforded their countenance and efficient sup- 
port to the animated efforts of the public teachers. 

6. The institutions of the celebrated Fellenberg, in 
Switzerland, accompanied by his genuine philanthro- 
py and devoted zeal in the cause of human improve- 
ment, contributed, in a very material degree, to elevate 
the standard of intellectual instruction. The harmoni- 
ous combination of all the elements requisite to the 
formation of a perfect character, in the system admin- 
istered by that great and good man, forms the distin- 
guishing characteristic of his comprehensive plan of 
education. The great deficiency which was found lo 
exist in the well-meant endeavors of those who hid 
preceded him, consisted in the partial and unequal c^e- 
velopement of the mind as well as the body ; and the 
thorough and practical reform effected by the assidu- 
ous labors of Fellenberg and his interesting family has 
received the approbation and sanction of the most en- 
lightened and intelligent in those countries where its 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 133 

surpassing excellence has received the test of experi- 
ment. Perhaps no more genial soil, considered in all 
the aspects which it presents to a contemplative mind, 
could be found, for the effectual maturing of all the 
details of a complete and finished system of mental, 
moral, and physical education, than the romantic and 
peaceful valleys of Switzerland ; and the schools at 
Hofwyl, under the immediate superintendence of this 
venerable apostle of intellectual improvement, were 
long the Mecca, around whose shrine the friends of 
education, throughout the civilized world, thronged 
to copy and to admire. 

7. Prussia has, for several years past, been emi- 
nently distinguished for the comparative perfection to 
which her systematic plans of popular education have 
been carried. This system may be said to have 
originated in the fostering and truly enlightened policy 
adopted by her illustrious monarch, Frederick William, 
who, in this respect, truly and well deserved the en- 
dearing appellation of Father of his country. Aiming, 
in an enlarged and comprehensive spirit of philanthro- 
py, to diffuse the blessings of education throughout the 
broad extent of his dominions, he scattered institutions 
of learning, and encouraged their support and main- 
tenance, wherever the wants and requirements of the 
people seemed to demand. Countenanced by an au- 
thority so illustrious, these institutions continued to 
multiply and to expand, and, under the control and 
direction of governmental agents and enactments, 
form, at this day, a leading portion of state polity, 
under the fostering influence of which the happiest 
results may be anticipated in the future character and 
acquirements of a numerous people. A complete 
revolution has already been effected in the manners 
and habits, the pursuits and prosperity, of the nation ; 
and although it could hardly be expected that a formi- 
dable opposition should not occasionally be encoun- 



134 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

tered on the part of those " whose craft was in dan- 
ger," the energy and firmness of the government, in 
the prosecution of its noble undertaking, has hitherto 
risen superior to every obstacle in the way of its suc- 
cess. Education has not only been brought within 
the reach and at the command of every family in the 
state, but its advantages have been enforced upon the 
negligent and the careless by a policy which can 
hardly be censured in a government constituted like 
that of Prussia, however impracticable it might be 
regarded under the operations of free institutions. 

8. The system of parochial schools in Scotland, 
with the improvements which upwards of three cen- 
turies have gradually introduced in a country distin- 
guished, in many respects, for its intelligent and or- 
derly population, has produced the most favorable 
state of things, with reference to the progress of edu- 
cation in that interesting quarter of the globe. The 
high degree of perfection which prevails in other por- 
tions of the continent has not, indeed, as yet, been at- 
tained ; but the increasing demand for intelligence and 
knowledge indicates the continued approach of that 
spirit of enterprise and philanthropy, which will not 
stop short of a fundamental reform, in all those de- 
partments of knowledge which are susceptible of ben- 
eficial improvement. 

9. In Wurtemburg, Baden, Hesse, Bavaria, Silesia, 
and most of the states formerly composing the Con- 
federation of the Rhine, the means of education have 
been greatly extended within the past ten years. Amid 
all the disturbances and agitations which have sur- 
rounded them at no great distance, and under circum- 
stances the most unfavorable to the hopes and antici- 
pations of the great body of the people, they have 
determined to commence the work of national and 
individual reform, by disseminating the elementary 
principles of instruction throughout their borders. Na- 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 135 

tional schools have every where been established, at 
great expense and labor. Almost every parish and 
hamlet participates in the benefits and advantages of 
education, and a certain portion of instruction is re- 
quired by law, while every inducement is held out by 
the liberal policy of government, as well as of indi- 
viduals and associations, to the attainment of an en- 
larged course of learning and information. These 
efforts have been effectually seconded by those most 
deeply interested in the result ; and a spirit extensively 
prevails, throughout all grades of society, from the 
highest to the lowest, favorable to the most complete 
and extensive developement of the enlarged views of 
the established authorities. 

10. In France and Holland, the result of several 
commissions, under the direction of some of the ablest 
friends of education, to foreign institutions, and partic- 
ularly those of Germany and Switzerland, has induced 
a more systematic and thorough organization of the 
department of public instruction, and elicited a deeper 
interest on the part of the great mass of the people. 
The advantages of education are enjoyed in a much 
superior degree than formerly, and the reformation 
already effected has been most sensibly felt in its op- 
erations on the morals, habits, and dispositions of the 
inhabitants. Much, however, remains yet to be ac- 
complished, before France will be able to assume an 
equal station, in this respect, with her eastern neigh- 
bors. 

11. From a comparison of the progress made, in 
this respect, in the United States, and particularly in 
our own state, with those nations where the advantages 
of education are most extensively in operation, we 
have the most abundant reason for self-congratulation. 
Although but few, if any, of our higher institutions of 
learning have obtained the perfection which is wit- 
nessed in some of the European states, the means of 



136 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

intelligence, derived from our admirable system of 
common school education, are far more extensively 
diffused. Without the necessity of resorting, in any 
degree, to compulsory measures, the proportion of 
those who are, under that system, furnished with the 
benefits of instruction, during the greater part of the 
year, to the number within the age ordinarily allotted 
to education, exceeds, by far, that of any other coun- 
try in the world. The foundations of moral and intel- 
lectual improvement are sufficiently broad and exten- 
sive, and could we only so far divert our minds from 
the immense variety of interests with which the enter- 
prise and energy of the age has surrounded us, as 
fully to appreciate the responsibilities devolving upon 
us, nothing more would be necessary to enable us to 
assume that commanding position, with reference to 
the progress of intellect, which the world expects at 
our hands. Here, in this favored clime, in this en- 
lightened age, in the midst of unexampled prosperity, 
individually and collectively, and prompted by every 
inducement which can appeal to the noblest and best 
feelings of our nature, we should be wanting in duty 
to ourselves, to our country, to posterity, and to the 
world, if we neglected to cany, to their utmost practi- 
cable perfection, the theory and practice of mental, 

MORAL, SOCIAL, AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND IN- 
STRUCTION. 

12. The spirit of the age is essentially peaceful. 
After the experience of nearly a quarter of a century 
of prosperous quiet and repose, it would require a 
strong and powerful incentive to arouse the civilized 
nations of Europe and America to the bloody arbitra- 
ment of the battle-field. The assertion and mainten- 
ance of great fundamental principles, a general awak- 
ening of the nations of the continent to the rapidly 
expanding idea of Liberty and Republican Equali- 
ty, or some formidable combination of the great pow- 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION- 137 

ers against the rights and interests of the lesser, may 
indeed, in the progress of events, again convulse king- 
doms and people with sanguinary wars, and upturn 
the ancient depths of governmental sway. The Euro- 
pean world may, even now, be on the brink of such a 
terrific volcano. Certain it is, that the signs and por- 
tents of the times, in no inconsiderable degree, indicate 
a coming eruption — a fierce and fiery mingling of the 
elements of human passions, human suffering, ven- 
geance, retribution, and bloodshed, out of which, and 
through which, though the period may be remote and 
long postponed, will emerge a new and renovated sys- 
tem, based on the eternal laws of Truth and Right. 
However this may be, the present, outwardly at least, 
is peaceful, and progressive in all the arts of civiliza- 
tion, in all the refinements of science, in all the bless- 
ings of education, moral virtue, religious culture, social 
happiness, and individual advancement. A standard 
has been erected, towards which every thing seems 
rapidly tending ; an elevated standard, which the in- 
tellect and the heart have combined to fix ; a standard 
not capable of being reached in a day, not in years, 
perhaps not even in ages ; but the very struggle for 
the attainment of which strengthens, ennobles, and 
purifies our nature, improves and adds dignity to our 
humanity, and raises us in the scale of being. We 
have already accomplished much. The schoolmaster 
has been abroad, and his footsteps are distinctly visible 
in the sweeping career of enterprise which has char- 
acterized the century laow nearly half elapsed, in the 
conquest over wha? were once deemed moral and 
physical impossibilities, in the aggregation and con- 
centration of powers heretofore widely diffused, and 
dormant in their strength, toward objects worthy of 
their united effort, and in the systematic and deter- 
mined exertions of individual and associated mind to 
12 



138 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

root out long-established errors, destroy inveterate 
prejudices, check the growth of evil passions, and give 
a new direction and a new and vivid impetus to the 
irresistible powers of the human intellect. Within the 
last half century, a neio poiver has, apparently for 
the first time, been discovered, and is now sought to 
be brought into action, and its capacities fully and 
completely developed ; and this is the power of the 
masses. For thousands of years the machinery of 
society and of government seems to have rolled on 
under the guidance of emperors, kings, and nobles, 
the wealthy, the high-born, and the titled, without the 
slightest recognition of man as man, of the multitude, 
of the people, except when such recognition was forced 
upon the hereditary lords of creation by the outbreak 
of some irrepressible burst of popular fury ; and then 
the progress of the anomalous power was watched, 
and its final disappearance hailed with the same emo- 
tions with which the transit of some deadly and de- 
structive, but unusual and unexpected, malady was 
wont to be regarded. Now, a third estate — not in 
name only, but in stern reality — is beginning to make 
itself felt in the midst of the old established govern- 
ments, with a power which threatens its speedy and 
certain elevation to the dignity of a Jirst estate ; and 
here, where it is not only the first, but the sole es- 
tate, it has become the effective material upon which 

EDUCATION, and SOCIAL, MORAL, and RELIGIOUS CUL- 
TURE, are working out their great lessons of mental, 
moral, and political regeneration. 

13. The tendency of all this is, doubtless, to make 
mankind better, wiser, and happier, to extend and 
widen the sphere of knowledge, to develope the in- 
numerable sources of individual and national prosperi- 
ty, and to distribute more equally the bounteous gifts 
of Providence to our race. But there is danger that 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 139 

the energies of this newly-discovered power may be 
overtasked in the eager desire to put forth its im- 
mense strength upon objects unattainable now, and at 
once ; or, if attainable in part, incapable of producing 
the beneficial end which may ultimately reasonably be 
expected. There are many great designs yet to be 
accomplished, but which the present generation can 
only design ; many a noble edifice is to be erected, the 
corner stone, only, of which can be laid by the men of 
the present day. It was enough for the good king of 
Israel, in ancient times, that " he had it in his heart" 
to build a temple to the Lord ; the execution of his 
pious design was left to his successor. So with the 
all-aspiring spirit of philanthropy and benevolence 
which so strongly characterizes the present age. It 
may be enough, in the wise orderings of Providence^ 
that it has produced the grand and magnificent ideas 
of Universal Education, Universal Emancipa* 
tion, and Universal Freedom ; the completion of 
these great undertakings must be bequeathed to the 
generations that shall succeed us. In the mean time, 
we shall do well, with the provident king of the Jews, to 
mature and perfect the conception, accumulate and 
gather together the materials from every region and 
every shore, put in requisition the immense resources 
of every clime, and, having thus discharged our whole 
duty in a spirit of conscientious and enlightened obe- 
dience to the dictates of sound wisdom, leave to those 
who shall come after us the responsibilities of carrying 
out our great designs, in such a manner as shall be 
found most compatible with their relative importance. 



140 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS, 

1. The higher institutions of learning, scattered 
throughout the United States, have doubtless exercised 
a beneficial effect upon the cause of mental and moral 
improvement. It is, however, conceded on all hands, 
that they have not yet attained that high standard of 
excellence which the demands of the age and the 
genius of our government require. Nor was it to have 
been expected, in the unprecedented rapidity with 
which a nation of freemen have risen to wealth and 
prosperity, that those substantial elements of greatness, 
which are to cement its noble proportions in its matu- 
rity and vigor, should have assumed, at once T the form 
and consistence which time alone can fully develope. 
We have been pointed to the colleges and universities 
of the old world, and asked to compare the reputation 
and the merits of our proudest seminaries of education 
with those time-honored monuments of science and 
the arts ; but have those who would undervalue our 
progress in this respect reflected upon the immense 
disparity, not only in the means and resources at our 
command, but in the duration of our national exist- 
ence ? The hoarded wealth of an overgrown aristoc- 
racy and the immense patronage of a royal treasury 
have not yet been poured into the laps of our literary 
institutions, and the axe of the woodman has hardly 
ceased to resound in the neighborhood of the stately 
edifices consecrated to learning. The men upon 
whom their endowments and destinies wholly depend 
are the same who have made the wilderness to give 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 141 

place to the abodes of civilization, who have built up 
our cities and villages, and given that irresistible im- 
pulse to enterprise and industry, to agriculture and 
commerce, whose abundant fruits are every where 
around us. What wonder, then, that we are unable 
to compete with the advantages and facilities afforded 
by the ancient repositories of wisdom, magnificence, 
and affluence, which abound in the cities of Europe ? 
Have we not rather cause to be astonished that our 
citizens have been enabled to intersperse so much of 
the permanent and the lasting with the hastily con- 
structed establishments of a new world and a new or- 
der of things ? 

2. It is, moreover, undoubtedly true, as a general 
proposition, that the character and excellence of our 
higher institutions must be graduated, in no inconsid- 
erable degree, by the standard and requirements of 
the elementary schools, and the state of public opin- 
ion. If these are satisfied with mediocrity ; if the 
great concerns of public instruction are left to regulate 
themselves as they best may ; if the great mass of 
community neither exhibit nor feel any peculiar inter- 
est in the progress of knowledge, and are contented 
that the minds of the young shall mature or deterio- 
rate, as circumstances shall give a bias to their devel- 
opement — it can hardly be expected that a more re- 
lined and elevated tone should be communicated to 
the establishments which are to prepare their inmates 
more immediately for the active scenes and pursuits 
of life. If the fountain is neglected, and suffered to 
accumulate impurities, they must necessarily pervade 
the course of the stream, and we cannot reasonably 
anticipate that its waters should be clear and transpa- 
rent at any advanced stage of their progress. The at- 
tainment of intellectual and moral strength is gradual 
and regular. The mind does not step at. once and 
intuitively from its leading-strings to maturity and 



142 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

greatness ; nor can it be made to do so by any combi- 
nation or arrangement of artificial means : any neg- 
lect, therefore, which it suffers in its first advances, 
any indifference manifested to its early struggles to 
comprehend the world around it, and the mysteries of 
creation and of knowledge, forms a serious and often 
a fatal encumbrance to its subsequent career, which no 
superiority or excellence in the opportunities afforded 
it for its final preparation can adequately compen- 
sate. There is no peculiar virtue in the mere name 
of a college or university, which should exempt its in- 
mates or its teachers from the ordinary operations of 
well-settled and fundamental principles. The same 
amount, quality, and degree of learning which are to 
be found within walls of high-sounding titles and ex- 
tensive repute may be brought within the legitimate 
range of those institutions which are accessible to the 
most humble and straitened circumstances, provided, 
only, such transition is sustained by the general re- 
quirements and intelligence. 

3. In this country our students are prepared, if pre- 
pared at all, for their entrance into the higher grades 
of literary institutions, by a course of instruction in the 
various elementary schools. This course is often, from 
a variety of causes, which will hereafter be more par- 
ticularly enumerated, superficial in the extreme ; and 
yet it may, and does, in a great majority of instances, 
enable the student to pass the formal and requisite ex- 
aminations, preparatory to his admission to our col- 
leges and universities. Depending, as many of these 
do, principally for support upon the number which is 
enrolled on their catalogue, the avenues to their halls 
are not uniformly guarded with the utmost strictness, 
and liberal allowances are made for the diversity 
which must necessarily be supposed to have prevailed 
in the preparatory discipline of the candidates. During 
the whole term of their collegiate course, a formal 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 143 

routine of instruction is ordinarily adopted, which se- 
verely tasks the faculties of the slow-moving intellect, 
while it falls essentially short of the genius and abil- 
ities of the more ripe scholar. The one is condemned 
to incessant labor, in order to sustain a respectable 
standing among his fellow-students, while the other, 
whose perceptions are more rapid, whose genius is 
better adapted to the pursuits of literature, or whose 
opportunities have been more extensive or better im- 
proved, is under the absolute necessity of spending a 
large part of his time in listless idleness or desultory 
and aimless acquirements. The mental discipline of 
these institutions is, moreover, from the systematic ar- 
rangements incident to every department, and which 
long usage has, in some measure, sanctioned, illy 
adapted to supply any of those numerous deficiencies, 
which are so often found to exist in the previous 
studies and attainments of their inmates ; and cases 
are not unfrequent, where the possession of a degree, 
or even the enjoyment of the honors of a college, have 
been found not inconsistent with the most deplora- 
ble ignorance and the most superficial acquirements. 
These are errors, however, which time will abun- 
dantly correct ; errors, in some respects, incidental to 
all systems of education, and peculiarly so to those 
which have not existed sufficiently long to derive the 
full benefits of wisdom and experience. 

4. If we institute a comparison, in this respect, with 
other countries, we shall have no reason to look upon 
the progress we have already attained in maturing the 
details of our system with any feelings of dissatisfac- 
tion, or any consciousness of inferiority. In a great 
majority of cases, no connecting link exists in the in- 
stitutions of the old world between the elementary or 
popular schools and the universities and colleges. 
Those who receive their education in the former 
seldom aspire to any greater proficiency, while those 



144 IVLENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

who, from their birth or condition in life, are expected 
to move in the higher circles of society, and who do 
not feel the necessity of any exertions to secure the 
continued enjoyments of competency and luxury, are 
prepared for their future residence within the walls of 
the university by a laborious and expensive course of 
private and public instruction, adapted to their peculiar 
circumstances and requirements. The means at their 
disposal, the leisure and the time at their command, 
the abundant opportunities presented at every step, 
the vast accumulation of learning concentrated in their 
midst, and rendered valuable by the experience and 
sanction of ages, — all these form a combination of cir- 
cumstances peculiarly favorable to a complete devel- 
opement of the mental energy. All its advantages, 
great as they unquestionably are, cannot, however, 
compensate for the deplorable inequality which is con- 
stantly felt to exist among those whom the wisdom of 
the Creator intended to share the same general lot. 
We should be content to abide the workings of time 
upon the conceded defects of our literary institutions, 
while every citizen, from the highest to the lowest, is 
permitted to derive such substantial benefits as they 
are still enabled to afford, — to suggest, and to assist in 
carrying into practical operation, such improvements as 
the intelligence of the age shall indicate, — and to unite 
in rearing, for the benefit of the present and of future 
generations, and for the admiration of the world, a 
system of National Education which shall be wor- 
thy of the freedom we enjoy, and equal to our exalted 
position and destiny as a people. While the blessings 
of our common schools are diffused with a comprehen- 
sive benevolence, embracing every child of the repub- 
lic in an enlightened policy, let us not reject the in- 
estimable boon because it does not come up to an 
imaginary or real standard of perfection. While our 
academies are sending forth, annually, intelligent and 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 145 

cultivated minds to mingle with the great mass of their 
fellow-citizens, and to add to the pervading influence 
of intelligence and refinement which is rapidly extend- 
ing over the land, let us not decry their value because 
they do not strictly conform to the models of those 
ancient republics or modern dynasties which we have 
been taught to respect and admire. Nor shall we 
consult the dictates of true wisdom by instituting and 
tracing out, with minute accuracy of detail, invidious 
comparisons between the higher departments of litera- 
ture and science in our own happy land and those of 
the old world, while we can point to the cabinet and to 
the camp, to the senate hall and to the tribunals of 
justice, to the pulpit and to the bar, for the proudest 
and noblest illustrations of what has been already ef- 
fected, under the pressure of the most discouraging 
circumstances, by our colleges and universities, in 
the completion of that work of elementary education, 
the foundations of which have been generally laid in 

OUr COMMON SCHOOLS. 

5. The system of Common School Education, as 
adopted and carried into execution in several of the 
states of the Union, if it has not fully realized the 
hopes and expectations of its enlightened friends, has, 
beyond all doubt, contributed, in an essential degree, 
to the intelligence and good order of the community at 
large. While its organization and management have 
materially varied in the different states, its general re- 
sults have been nearly the same. Whether the sys- 
tem, as in Connecticut, is provided for principally from 
the public treasury, or, as in the other New England 
states, by individual taxation chiefly, or, as with us, by 
a judicious combination of these modes, instruction is 
carried, at a very cheap rate, to the doors of every 
citizen who feels disposed to avail himself of the ad- 
vantages and blessings which it secures to his children. 
13 



146 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

Whatever defects may have been experienced in the 
practical operations of a plan so comprehensive and 
beneficial, have arisen either from its careless admin- 
istration, or that culpable indifference to its improve- 
ment, which has so generally prevailed among those 
most deeply interested in its prosperity, and are in no 
degree to be attributed to a want of energy or wisdom 
in the system itself. To remedy these evils, it is only 
necessary that public sentiment should be brought to 
bear, with its aocustomed force, upon a topic so highly 
important to all our future prospects as an enlightened 
and cultivated people. 

6. Unwearied efforts have been made, so far as our 
own state is concerned, to bring the details of the sys- 
tem of common school education to the utmost attain- 
able perfection. From the organization of our gov- 
ernment to the present time, our highest and most dis- 
tinguished public functionaries have made this subject 
the object of their assiduous and unremitted exertions. 
The interest thus manifested has resulted in the estab- 
lishment of a system fully adapted to the wants and 
requirements of the people, worthy of the resources 
and enterprise of the body politic, and combining, in 
its prominent and essential features, the intelligence 
and experience of the age. A perpetual fund, from 
the revenues of the state, has been long consecrated 
exclusively to this high object, yielding an annual 
interest, at the present time, of about one hundred 
and forty thousand dollars, and securing an annual dis- 
tribution to the several school districts of one hundred 
and ten thousand dollars, which there is no reason to 
apprehend will, at any future period, be diminished. 
The further sum of one hundred and ten thousand dol- 
lars has been appropriated to this purpose from the 
share of the surplus revenue of the United States de- 
posited with this state, making in all the annual amount 
of two hundred and twenty thousand dollars. In ad- 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 147 

rlition to this amount, the several counties are required 
to raise, by taxation on the inhabitants of each town, a 
sum equal to that which is received from the public 
treasury. Many of the counties are also in possession 
of handsome local funds ; so that an aggregate of 
upwards of five hundred thousand dollars of public 
money may now be annually relied upon by the com- 
mon schools of the state, from the beneficent policy 
and judicious administration of the constituted authori- 
ties. This appropriation is required to be devoted ex- 
clusively to the payment of competent and approved 
teachers, and a nearly equal additional amount is now 
annually raised, by voluntary taxation on the part of 
the several districts, to be applied to the payment of 
teachers, besides the incidental and necessary ex- 
penses in providing buildings, furniture, and books for 
the school, which alone amounts to nearly half a mil- 
lion of dollars, and if the fees of officers connected 
with the administration of the system are included, 
greatly exceeds that sum. 

7. It will be perceived from this statement, derived 
principally from public documents, that the enlight- 
ened liberality of the state has had, as yet, no tendency 
to relax the exertions or diminish the interest of those 
who have been the favored participants of its bounty. 
On the other hand, there can be no doubt that it has, 
thus far, imparted a stimulus and afforded an encour- 
agement to the several districts, which might not oth- 
erwise have been attained ; and that an additional 
incentive to individual enterprise has been derived 
from the cheering and animating influence which is 
imparted by the effective cooperation of the govern- 
mental departments. The ability and promptness 
evinced by the several officers to whom the adminis- 
tration of this excellent system is committed, in the 
discharge of their various and complicated duties, tend 
materially to promote its continued success, and to 



148 MENTAL AND A10KAL CULTURE. 

facilitate its operations. A plan for the general dif- 
fusion of knowledge, less exceptionable in its promi- 
nent details, and more extensively beneficial in its 
general results, could hardly have been devised, than 
the one so successfully, and, we would hope, perma- 
nently adopted by the citizens of this state. 

8. But it is of comparatively small importance how 
excellent or how admirable may be the external or- 
ganization and internal details of a system of educa- 
tion, unless the effect which it produces upon the great 
mass of those for whom it is intended shall correspond, 
in some degree, to the high promises which its consti- 
tution indicates. The important objects intended to be 
accomplished should never be overlooked by those 
upon whose influence and exertions its prosperity and 
ultimate success entirely depend. The proper direc- 
tion of the mind, in its earliest stages of advancement ; 
the harmonious and gradual developement of all its 
powers and faculties ; the enlightened culture of the 
moral as well as physical nature ; the inculcation of 
fixed and elevated principles of action ; in short, the 
completion of a solid and lasting foundation for future 
improvement and excellence in every situation of life, — 
these are the essential results, without the attainment 
of which nothing of permanent value can be secured 
from the most laborious efforts of public or private en- 
terprise. It is in vain that the bounty of the state is 
poured forth with profuse and commendable liberality, 
that the efforts of legislators and statesmen have been 
judiciously directed to the maturing of an enlightened 
and efficient system of public instruction, that individ- 
ual philanthropy and research spare no pains to com- 
bine with our own the varied excellences and im- 
provements of foreign climes, if, with all these advan- 
tages, we continue to exhibit an indifference to the 
practical operations of those elementary institutions 
from whence the streams of knowledge are designed 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 149 

to be diffused throughout the land. It is not enough 
that our youth are enabled to obtain a theoretical ac- 
quaintance with the various branches of literature and 
science, unless they possess the capacity and the dis- 
position to apply them to those useful and practical 
purposes for which they were intended. However 
highly the intellectual powers may be cultivated, no 
sufficient guaranty can ever be afforded, in the ab- 
sence of early and habitual moral impressions and 
principles, that they will not be miserably perverted, 
and, instead of a blessing, prove a curse to their pos- 
sessor and to mankind. The claims of society, the 
great interests of humanity, the obligations of true 
patriotism, and the happiness and welfare of individu- 
als, all concur in presenting the highest inducements 
to render the work of education, what it is capable of 
becoming, and what it should be, the moral and intel- 
lectual renovator of our race. 

9. The progress of the age, in all those great im- 
provements which have a tendency to promote the 
advance of civilization and refinement, indicates the 
continued march of mind. A practical reform in the 
administration of our primary schools, effected by the 
awakened and wholesome influence of public opinion, 
will tend, more than any thing else, to elevate the 
moral enterprise of the present day far above its 
present standard. This undertaking may not present 
itself in the attractive and alluring guise which belongs 
to many of those noble and enlightened projects which 
have enlisted the energies and drawn forth the re- 
sources of the learned, the great, and the good. It may 
be unostentatious in its pretensions, and unambitious in 
its character ; it may not call to its aid the ordinary 
interests, or the prevailing passions of the multitude; 
it may not possess the power to rally around itself that 
enthusiastic and ardent feeling which characterizes 
many of the pursuits of philanthropy and benevolence. 



150 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

Its ultimate aim, nevertheless, is more lofty, its hopes 
and its prospects more enlivening and animating, its 
destiny more sacred, and its aspirations more gener- 
ous and ennobling. Without its promised benefit we 
can derive no permanent and substantial improvement 
from the inventive capacity of genius ; deprived of its 
essential aid, all the blessings of social and active life 
will insensibly languish and decay. Comprehending, 
as it does, in its enlarged views, all that the present 
has of usefulness and enjoyment, and all that the future 
presents of anticipation and hope, the time cannot be 
distant when its importance shall be fully realized, and 
its high claims universally and practically acknowl- 
edged. 

10. One of the most serious defects in the practical 
operations of the common school system, as it has 
hitherto been administered, is the want of competent 
and experienced teachers. There are, doubtless, in 
every community, individuals combining a sufficiently 
high order of talents and qualifications ; but a false 
idea of economy, and an unjustifiable spirit of parsi- 
mony, seem so generally to have prevailed in our 
school districts, that the services of such men cannot 
be procured for the miserable compensation ordinarily 
afforded to teachers. The early education of our 
youth is, consequently, in too many instances, com- 
mitted to the care of the inexperienced, the inefficient, 
and the ignorant, those who resort to instruction as a 
temporary expedient, and who feel no interest beyond 
that of the moment, in the welfare, progress, or im- 
provement of their charge. When we take into con- 
sideration the immense importance of first impressions 
on the human mind, the influence uniformly exerted 
by early associations, the habits established, and the 
principles inculcated, upon which the whole of future 
life is to be modelled, we cannot but be surprised at 
the criminal apathy and indifference so frequently 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND C0M310N SCHOOLS. 151 

manifested towards our elementary institutions of learn- 
ing. That the happiness or misery, the intelligence or 
ignorance, the virtue or the vice, of those who look to 
us for the direction which their existence is to assume 
in all coming time, should be made to depend upon 
mere questions of pecuniary interest, is a proposition 
which cannot fail to alarm the conscience and awaken 
the sober conviction of every reflecting being. Such 
a result, however, it is to be apprehended, must neces- 
sarily follow from a continuance in the present system 
of furnishing our schools with cheap teachers. If we 
would command the services of men of cultivated in- 
tellect, sound and established moral principles, and 
liberal and enlarged views, we must present to them 
the ordinary inducements for ambitious and energetic 
action ; we must elevate the profession and business of 
an instructor to the grade of other honorable and lu- 
crative occupations; we must encourage a noble and 
well-directed competition; and, more than all, we must 
build up and sustain institutions expressly devoted to 
the preparation of teachers. Conventions and associa- 
tions of the friends of education have already effected 
much good by the direct and systematic influence 
which they have exerted upon public opinion in this 
and other important respects ; and no more beneficial 
measure could be adopted, if it were deemed practica- 
ble, than to procure, by means of such associations or 
otherwise, a general determination, on the part of the 
school districts, to require, in all cases, the highest at- 
tainable qualifications in teachers, and to reward their 
exercise in such a manner as to secure an increase of 
talent and capacity in this department. Upon this 
subject there should be neither hesitation nor delay. 
Economy can be consulted to a much greater degree, 
and in a much more effectual manner, in this mode, 
than in the one which now prevails to an extent so 
alarming. The money expended, and the time de- 



152 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

voted, under the system heretofore adopted, is worse 
than lost. When the celebrated founder of Pennsyl- 
vania left his native land for the great enterprise which 
has conferred immortality upon his name, among a 
variety of economical directions which he wished his 
family to observe during his absence, he impressively 
adds, in behalf of his children, " Let their learning be 
liberal ; spare no cost, for by such parsimony all is 
lost that is saved.'''' This noble sentiment is worthy of 
being perpetuated in letters of gold, for the admiration 
and instruction of every citizen of the republic. It 
imbodies a principle which cannot be too solemnly in- 
culcated upon the hearts and minds of the American 
people throughout all future generations. 

11. Another essential requisite to the efficiency and 
prosperity of our common school system is, that a 
deeper and more extended interest should be felt in 
their operations and welfare than has heretofore ex- 
isted. Strange as it may seem, the fact is neverthe- 
less indisputable, that, in a great majority of instances, 
parents seldom either visit or inquire into the condition, 
prospects, or success of the school at which their chil- 
dren pass so great a portion of their time, and where 
they are expected to lay the foundation for their edu- 
cation and their future character in life. If the teacher 
spends the usual number of hours in the day, and ful- 
fils the contract he has entered into with the district, in 
the ordinary manner, nothing more is required at his 
hands; and whether the minds of those whom he has 
undertaken to enlighten remain stationary, advance, or 
recede, seems practically a matter of but little mo- 
ment. While this indifference prevails among parents, 
can it be expected that any good results should mani- 
fest themselves in the primary schools ? The strong- 
est incentive which can be held out to a deserving 
teacher — the hope of securing the approbation of those 
for whom he labors, by the fidelity and ability with 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AJND COMMON SCHOOLS. 158 

■which his duties are performed — is entirely wanting ; 
and unless his benevolence and philanthropy greatly 
exceed those of ordinary men, he will relapse into 
that state of carelessness and indifference to the busi- 
ness he is engaged in, so fatal to its usefulness and 
success. It has been observed, that this culpable feel- 
ing is seldom manifested with reference to the external 
arrangements and internal polity of the districts them- 
selves. These minor subjects enlist the energies, and 
not unfrequently excite the sensibilities, of those con- 
cerned, in a very high degree. The limits and the 
form of the territorial organization, the location of the 
school-house, the divisions and annexations which may 
from time to time become necessary and proper, the 
assessment and collection of taxes, the choice of offi- 
cers, and a variety of incidental topics, are discussed 
with an earnestness, and occasionally with an acerbity 
of feeling, indicating the strongest interest in the re- 
sult. All this is commendable and praiseworthy, 
where it does not degenerate into unprofitable col- 
lisions and unpleasant feuds ; and no one can regret 
that these departments of the district school should be 
vigilantly guarded, and its welfare thus far, at least, 
promoted. But of how much greater importance is it, 
that the fundamental objects of the system should be 
secured in the dissemination of intelligence and the 
blessings of virtue, good order, and social improve- 
ment ! " These things ought ye to have done, and 
not to have left the others undone." 

12. The mode of instruction which has heretofore 
prevailed in our common schools has, beyond all 
doubt, been very objectionable, both in its matter and 
its manner. The branches taught have seldom been 
such as were adapted to the immature comprehension 
of the learner, at the period when they were required 
to be taken up, or which were calculated to prove ex- 
tensively and practically beneficial at any future time. 



154 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

Instruction has been communicated, too frequently, n 
such a manner as to produce an invincible repugnance 
in the mind for which it was intended, which could not 
prove otherwise than fatal to any subsequent interest 
or improvement. The intelligence of the present day 
has, it is believed, placed this branch of the subject 
before the public mind in such a light as to produce a 
strong conviction of the utter absurdity and inutility of 
the prevailing system, as well as its deleterious effects 
upon the mental, moral, and physical capacities of our 
youth. The method of education, now gradually gain- 
ing an ascendency in our best institutions, has received 
the sanction of the learned and experienced on the 
other side of the Atlantic, and commends itself to me 
judgment and intelligence of all who have examined 
and tested its intrinsic merit. Its distinguishing excel- 
lence consists in the harmonious developement of the 
various faculties of our nature, so as to produce the 
greatest possible improvement in the most simple and 
attractive manner — adopting, without prejudice or re- 
serve, all the suggestions which enlightened observa- 
tion and experience can furnish, and rejecting, with 
firmness and decision, every thing calculated to retard 
the progress, obstruct the intellect, or detract from the 
interest of the student. The complete substitution of 
this method, with its long train of substantial improve- 
ments, for the radical deficiencies and gross errors of 
the antiquated system, will be recognized as the intro- 
duction of a new era in the history of education. 

13. It has long been apparent to every attentive ob- 
server, and is conceded, on all hands, that the standard 
and prevailing modes of education, as they have here- 
tofore existed among us, are unsuited to the spirit of 
the age and the requirements of the human intellect. 
The quantity of knowledge, instead of its quality, has 
been too generally regarded in all our systems of in- 
struction ; and we are preparing for future action in 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 155 

life vast numbers of individuals, whose attainments, 
although perhaps sufficiently general and extensive, 
must necessarily be superficial. This state of things 
has its origin as well in the want of interest, so alarm- 
ingly apparent in the public mind with reference to 
this subject, as in causes more immediately connected 
with the administration of our institutions of learning. 
The absence of an efficient and well-qualified body of 
teachers, prepared to devote their time and talents to 
the energetic prosecution of an adequate and thorough 
course of mental, moral, and physical preparation, 
forms a serious obstacle to a complete reformation in 
the present defective methods of elementary instruc- 
tion. Efforts have recently been made on the part of 
the legislature of our own state, ably seconded by the 
regents of the university and the principals of several 
of our academies, to establish and maintain seminaries 
for the education of teachers, upon the principles of 
the normal schools in various parts of Europe. Could 
we indulge the hope that this system could be effectu- 
ally carried out, in accordance with the design and in- 
tentions of its enlightened founders and patrons, no 
greater or more valuable service could be afforded to 
the cause of education. But while so little encourage- 
ment is held out to the ambition of those who are dis- 
posed to avail themselves of its advantages in a man- 
ner calculated to fit them for lasting usefulness, it can 
hardly be expected that the comprehensive views of 
the legislature will immediately be realized. There 
are so many fields of labor around us, more inviting, 
more profitable, and more permanent, that it requires 
a more disinterested effort than we can hope to wit- 
ness in this material age, to sacrifice present comfort 
and future prospects to the doubtful allurements and 
rewards of philanthropic exertion. All must lament 
the prevalence of a spirit so repugnant to the genius 
of our institutions, and so paralyzing to the onward 



156 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

progress of light and knowledge, and we cannot per- 
mit ourselves to doubt that it will ultimately give place 
to a higher and nobler feeling. Entertaining these 
views, we are accustomed to regard every indication 
of a better and more exalted tone of public sentiment 
as favorable to the final triumph of correct principles 
in this respect, and to look forward, with unabated con- 
fidence, to the period when teachers of youth, qualified 
for their deeply responsible vocation by years of prac- 
tical study and observation, shall assume an equal sta- 
tion with those who are engaged in the most respecta- 
ble as well as lucrative employments of our country. 
In the mean time, our seminaries of preparation will 
have attained strength and durability, under the direc- 
tion of experienced and efficient instructors, and will 
gradually and steadily commend themselves to the best 
wishes of an intelligent population. 

14. To those who appreciate the immense impor- 
tance of a proper cultivation of the mind, and its influ- 
ence upon the destiny of individuals and the welfare 
of society, it is lamentable to witness the waste of time 
and the perversion of power, which are the necessary 
results of careless and defective methods of instruction. 
These evils exist among us to a degree which attentive 
observation alone can fully estimate. In a very large 
proportion of common schools the moral culture of the 
young is, to say the least, entirely neglected, and those 
principles of action upon which the tendency of future 
life wholly depends are permitted to mature and ex- 
pand, as the varying circumstances of the hour may 
dictate. The accumulation of knowledge, in a con- 
fused, superficial, and often a forced manner, is the 
result, perhaps, of years of wretched discipline, under 
the most various, absurd, and contradictory systems. 
The powers of the memory are overtasked and abused, 
while the perceptive faculties remain unenlightened, 
and the reasoning, judging, and discriminating capaci- 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 157 

ties unaffected. An early and insuperable aversion to 
the pursuits of science is contracted by the forbidding 
appearances they are made to assume. The mind, 
naturally eager for information, and disposed to the 
acquisition of new ideas, finds itself repulsed, in its first 
stages, by the necessity of conforming to arbitrary' 
standards and incomprehensible requirements. Its ca- 
pabilities are crushed in the bud, its self-confidence 
destroyed, its ambition checked, and its progress to 
maturity fatally retarded. All its subsequent advances 
must necessarily partake of the weakness and debility 
which have thus prematurely contracted its faculties 
and prevented the full and harmonious developcment 
of its powers. 

15. The valuable improvements adopted by the en- 
lightened and benevolent founders of the German, 
Swiss, and Prussian schools, have already exerted a 
vast influence on the system of elementary instruction, 
both in this country and Europe. Rejecting, altogeth- 
er, the absurd and impracticable views which had ob- 
tained so wide a predominance, these practical and 
independent reformers have undertaken to guide the 
mind from its earliest expansion to its more substantial 
and lasting attainments, by assisting it in perceiving 
and understanding its own powers, and in availing it- 
self with the greatest facility of its own wonderful and 
diversified resources. It is not left to waste its active 
energies in unprofitable idleness and vacuity durirg 
those intervals in which it is unengaged in the prose- 
cution of its literary and scientific researches. It 
attains, early, and without sensible effort, the habit of 
perceiving, analyzing, and comprehending the visible 
objects of the material universe, and of applying the 
principles thus agreeably and naturally imbibed to 
their proper uses in life. The foundation being thus 
broadly and permanently laid, the superstructure is 
made to exhibit its easy and graceful proportions, by 



158 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

an assiduous cultivation of the mental powers, having 
a due regard to the equal predominance of each, by 
implanting and constantly cherishing fixed and stable 
principles of virtue and Christian morality, and by a 
wise supervision and judicious discipline of the physical 
faculties of our common nature. In this manner the 
students of those institutions pass their cheerful spring- 
time of existence, in thoroughly preparing themselves 
for a rich harvest of usefulness, happiness, and ex- 
tended benevolence. Their acquisitions are solid, sub- 
stantial, and permanent ; their capabilities for whatever 
destination futurity may have in store for them are 
abundantly secured ; and when they emerge into the 
scenes of active life they are effectually protected, so 
far as human efforts can protect them, against its in- 
sidious temptations and lurking snares. They are 
prepared to exert an influence among their fellow- 
men which shall be widely and beneficially felt, to 
infuse into the bosom of society a new and creative 
energy, dissipate the thick clouds of ignorance and 
superstition, check the predominance of guilty pas- 
sions, and elevate the pursuits and objects of all around 
them. In their turn, they give the bias of their own 
minds, and the results of their enlightened researches, 
to a new generation, and are thus instrumental, in an 
eminent degree, in renovating and purifying the sources 
of public opinion, correcting public and private morals, 
lessening the amount of vice and misery, and contrib- 
uting to the cup of human enjoyment. 

16. From the official returns made to the superin- 
tendent of common schools of this state, it appears 
that, out of about six hundred and fifty thousand chil- 
dren, between the ages of five and sixteen years, re- 
siding in the state, upwards of six hundred thousand, 
or twelve out of every thirteen, are under instruction 
in the common schools. Of the remaining fifty thou- 
sand, ten thousand are engaged in academical studies, 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 159 

and the residue are either educated in private and 
select schools, or are entirely destitute of instruction. 
From the statements of a distinguished friend of educa- 
tion, recently made to the public, derived from long 
and accurate personal investigation, nineteen out of 
twenty of all the children in the Union are instructed 
in the common schools. It is in the common schools, 
then, that the great mass of those who are soon to 
direct the interests and guide the destinies of our 
great and growing republic, receive those cardinal and 
elementary lessons of mental and moral training which 
are to shape and govern their lives, form the basis of 
their individual, social, political, and religious charac- 
ter, mould their institutions, and direct their energies. 
What a trust is here confided to those who have the 
immediate supervision of these institutions ! How mo- 
mentous and solemn the responsibility, devolved upon 
parents, upon officers of school districts, upon all di- 
rectly or remotely connected with a system involving 
such vast results, and especially upon teachers ! Let 
us briefly consider its extent and importance. 

17. And, first, what is the nature and extent of the 
education which the enlightened dictates of religious 
and moral duty, the aspects and civilization of the age, 
and the character of our institutions, require at our 
hands ? Clear, consistent, and accurate views on this 
head are indispensable to a comprehensive and prac- 
tical system of public instruction ; and it is to the ab- 
sence or neglect of such views that we may trace the 
wide and powerful dominion of ignorance and error, 
even while surrounded by intelligence and civilization. 
An ignorance of the fundamental faculties of the 
mind, — their various powers and susceptibilities, — 
their modes of action, separately, and in their infi- 
nitely diversified combinations, — the influences, exter- 
nal and internal, which affect them, — and the innu- 
merable elements which, often imperceptibly, enter 



160 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

into and gradually constitute the character, — a failure 
duly to appreciate and rightly to comprehend the car- 
dinal virtues of humanity, — the obligations of con- 
science and of duty, and the supremacy of the moral 
nature, — a mistaken conception of the spirit of the 
age, and the demands of the times, — and a perverted 
view of the peculiar institutions and form of govern- 
ment under which it is our happiness to live, — all and 
each of these exert a powerful influence in giving, 
early, a false but irrevocable direction to the plastic 
and expanding mind of youth, and are fraught with 
consequences which, were we able to trace them to 
their legitimate results, we should indeed tremble to 
contemplate. The teacher, to whose care we commit 
the instruction of our children, is thereby vested with 
a power second, in importance and extent, to none 
bestowed upon the human race — the power, namely, 
to develope, mould, and direct the limitless energies 
of the immortal mind ; to lay the foundations of a life 
of happiness or misery to be enjoyed or suffered by 
those who, in their innocence and confiding helpless- 
ness, await his lessons ; to form the future characters 
of those who, in a few short years, are to step forth 
upon the broad arena of the world, and mingle their 
destinies, for good or for evil, with that of their kind. 
It is his duty systematically and thoroughly to prepare 
himself, both intellectually and morally, for the due 
discharge of these high responsibilities, and to enter 
upon the performance of his great task, deeply im- 
pressed with a conviction of its importance, and reso- 
lutely determined to fulfil its obligations conscien- 
tiously, and to the extent of his abilities. Above all, 
he should be penetrated with a profound reverence 
and abiding love for humanity, as such, that he may 
be prepared to do justice to each individual committed 
to his charge ; to apprehend and appreciate the various 
shades of character spread out before him ; accurately 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 161 

to estimate (so to speak) the length, breadth, and depth 
of the mental and moral faculties of each of his pupils, 
and intelligently to develope the powers of the mind 
in harmonious accordance with its whole nature and 
constitution. 

18. These requirements undoubtedly involve capaci- 
ties "and gifts rarely to be found in the present state 
of knowledge, and demand minds deeply imbued with 
philosophy, thoroughly trained and disciplined, and ca- 
pable of communicating the results of that discipline, 
in an intelligible manner, to others. It is, moreover, 
true that the proportion of such minds, devoted to the 
task of elementary instruction in our common schools, 
is lamentably small, in comparison with those of a 
less elevated and comprehensive character. But all 
excellence is progressive; and we are called upon, by 
every consideration of duty and usefulness to the rising 
generation, to fix upon a standard to which the ambi- 
tion and exertions of those who would prepare them- 
selves for the high calling of teachers of youth in our 
elementary institutions may be directed. This can be 
effectually accomplished only by an enlightened pub- 
lic sentiment ; and to secure the energetic cooperation 
of the great mass of our fellow-citizens in an object so 
noble, it can only be necessary to present to them, in 
a clear and intelligible manner, its paramount and vital 
importance to all their springs of happiness, and of 
individual and social well-being. 

19. The great end and aim of all education should 
be to confer upon the pupil an enlightened knowledge 
of the fundamental laws and constitution of his nature, 
and a clear perception of his duties and obligations as 
an intelligent, moral, and social being. He should be 
made to comprehend, so far as it is possible for him to 
do so, his wonderful and mysterious existence; the 
great purposes for which he was created; the high 

14 



162 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

duties and responsibilities devolved upon him ; the 
various physical and mental faculties which he pos- 
sesses ; their adaptation to each other, and to the ex- 
ternal world of matter as well as mind ; their limita- 
tions and restrictions ; their capacities for action and 
enjoyment; the consequences resulting from their 
proper and harmonious action, in the elevation, ex- 
pansion, and happiness of his nature ; and the inevita- 
ble retributions and sufferings flowing from the dis- 
cordant play of the passions and the violation of the 
laws of his being. He should early be taught to 
recognize the supremacy of the moral sentiments, the 
dictates of duty, the voice of God within his soul ; and 
that he may rightly understand and intelligently inter- 
pret the will of his Creator, his intellect must be stored 
with the rich treasures of knowledge ; his perceptions 
of truth rendered clear and undisturbed ; his faculties 
of analysis, discrimination, comparison, and reason, 
kept in constant, regular, and healthy exercise ; and 
every admixture of error carefully removed. He must 
be taught to regard himself as a portion of the com- 
munity in which he resides, bound to consult its para- 
mount interests, to obey cheerfully all its laws, and 
conform to its institutions, in so far as they do not 
clearly subvert the obligations of duty and of con- 
science ; to carry forward its civilization, promote its 
welfare and prosperity, and contribute to the happiness 
and well-being of its citizens. His intellectual and 
moral faculties must be so cultivated and developed as 
to enable him, in the right exercise of his judgment 
and discrimination, to arrive at just conclusions upon 
the various questions of individual, social, or public 
concernment, in relation to which he may be called to 
act. In his researches into the history of the past, as 
well as in his investigations of the varying phenomena 
and results of science and the arts ; in his study of the 
universe, as well of matter as of mind, — he should be 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 163 

enabled to proceed upon enlarged and comprehensive 
principles, to separate the essential and the permanent 
from the transitory and the accidental, and to deduce 
those conclusions which alone can strengthen and in- 
vigorate the intellectual powers, and carry forward the 
whole mind in its pursuit of truth. 

20. Let the teacher, then, ponder well the deep re- 
sponsibilities which his office involves. Let him reflect 
that to him is committed the direction, in a great de- 
gree, of the future destinies of immortal beings, fresh 
from the hands of their Creator, and entering upon a 
career of existence which is to know no termination. 
Above all, let him be deeply and seriously impressed 
with the reflection that, during the rapidly-fleeting years 
of childhood, the great work of education is going on 
with an impulse which cannot be restrained ; that, 
while the body is progressing to maturity, the intel- 
lectual and moral faculties are constantly participating 
in all the influences daily and hourly presented by the 
external world ; that the wonderful elements of mind 
are incessantly engaged in the solution of the great 
problem of existence ; and that, with or without the in- 
struction which it is his duty to communicate, results 
of infinite moment to the future welfare and prosperity 
of the beings confided to his care will be attained. 

21. It is to the elevation of the character and quali- 
fication of the teachers of our common schools that 
we are to look for the substantial and permanent ad- 
vancement of the interests of education. In the actual 
condition and present aspect of our free institutions, all 
other means will be found of secondary importance. 
To this object, then, let our chief exertions be directed, 
in full confidence that public sentiment will abundantly 
sustain, nay, imperatively demand, the universal dif- 
fusion of a system of public instruction emanating from 
and under the immediate and constant supervision of 
the highest minds of the community. The business 



164 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

of instruction is of too great importance — is too deeply 
and intimately connected with the highest interests of 
the race — -too closely allied to civilization — to the dif- 
fusion and enlightened appreciation of Christianity— 
to the progressive advancement and ultimate perfection 
of our nature — to be confided to ignorant or unskilful 
hands. 

22. Systems of education will be found almost in- 
variably to partake of the character and spirit of the 
age by which they are adopted, and to be bounded 
by its general attainments. Public opinion, here, as on 
every other subject, exerts a predominating influence. 
It is impossible for men to teach what they do not 
themselves possess ; although they may assist in the 
proper developement of powers which may enable the 
learner to extend his researches far beyond those of 
the instructor. The work of education may therefore 
be properly conducted without direct reference to its 
ultimate results, provided the instructor is capable of 
communicating to the pupil an adequate knowledge of 
his own powers, and of the materials in the physical 
and moral world upon which they may act, and by 
which they may be influenced ; and provided, also, he 
gives a right direction to the moral and intellectual 
faculties. The details of science may, under such 
circumstances, safely be left to be mastered as inclina- 
tion and opportunity may arise. There is little danger 
that such as are necessary will be neglected ; while 
much valuable time might be saved which would other- 
wise be unprofitably spent in the acquisition of branches 
which, however adapted to minds differently organ- 
ized, can neither be adequately appreciated or bene- 
ficially employed by those for whose benefit they are 
specially intended. 

23. The first great element of education is a 
thorough observation of the material world around us, 
in all its varied aspects. This the infant mind com- 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 165 

menccs upon its first consciousness of life, and continues 
with constantly increasing interest and pleasure, until 
its faculties are sufficiently strengthened to enable it to 
reason and compare, and to look in upon itself. At 
this period, the most important in its results upon the 
future, moral impressions begin to be made ; at first 
feeble and faint, but gradually more and more perma- 
nent and durable, taking their hues from surrounding 
circumstances and associations, and imprinting them- 
selves with an almost indelible distinctness upon the 
mind. It is to be feared that parents and teachers do 
not sufficiently appreciate the immense interests which 
their children have at stake at this critical period of 
their lives. Keenly susceptible of every passing 
breath of influence ; open to the reception of every 
precept and every principle which may be inculcated ; 
alive to the force of every example which is pre- 
sented to their consideration ; and rapidly assimilating 
their feelings, habits, and impulses to those with which 
they are brought into contact, — their characters are 
insensibly formed, and the long and interminable vista 
of the future moulded at the will and pleasure of those 
who direct the early developement of their powers. 
What a responsibility is here ! And what are the 
requisites to its faithful and conscientious discharge ? 
The suppression of every improper passion ; the assid- 
uous cultivation of every virtue ; the daily practice of 
every known duty ; the frequent exhibition of all that 
is beautiful in religion and morality ; charity and for- 
giveness for the erring ; simplicity and humility in all 
the details of life ; and a proper appreciation of the 
busy world around us, of the shifting scenes of light 
and shade which alternate as we pass through it, and 
of all the interests which spring up and disappear in its 
rapid progress. In other words, the education which 
it becomes our duty, under the sanction of the most 
fearful responsibility, to bestow upon those who look to 



166 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

us for the direction of their future lives, and who come 
to us in all the sinless purity and angelic innocence of 
their nature, to learn their destiny, we cannot ade- 
quately bestow, until we have first thoroughly purified 
and renovated our own hearts and natures, and purged 
from them the dross which the contaminations of the 
world have engendered. And herein are we not 
doubly blessed, both in giving and receiving? How 
beautiful is that adaptation of Providence, which 
appeals to one of the strongest and most universal 
principles of our nature — the deep interest which the 
parent feels for the future happiness and welfare of his 
child, — to secure for him that discipline of the whole 
mind which shall fit him for the proper discharge of all 
the duties of life, and for the high and holy enjoy- 
ments of which that mind is susceptible ; and, at the 
same time, converts the exercise of that very discipline 
into the means of elevating and purifying the hearts 
of those from whom it is required ! And how accu- 
mulated the responsibility of those whom such an in- 
ducement fails to reach ; who, engrossed with the 
business and cares, the frivolities and passions, of life, 
suffer the stifling weeds of vice and ignorance to choke 
the narrow path of virtue, and leave their offspring to 
wander among the crowded thoroughfares which lead 
to degradation, wretchedness, and misery ! 

24. It must always be borne in mind that no educa- 
tion is worthy of the name which does not, at the 
earliest practicable period, confer upon the pupil the 
power of self-culture ; which does not fully apprize 
him of the capacities and destination of his intellectual 
and moral nature, and enable him to develope his 
various faculties in harmony with the constitution of 
his being, and in subserviency to the great end for 
which he was created. One of the chief distinctive 
features of humanity, as has heretofore been observed, 
is individual responsibility, and its prominent charac- 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 167 

teristic, the capacity for indefinite progression. "No 
man liveth to himself alone," — and, in the exercise of 
the daily and hourly duties of life, the interests and 
well-being of others are, to a greater or less extent, 
involved. The progress of civilization has immeas- 
urably enlarged the sphere of individual exertion, and 
opened a corresponding field of mental advancement. 
By repressing the more violent passions, the nobler 
sentiments of humanity have been permitted to expand, 
and the intellectual powers have been directed to the 
accomplishment of higher and purer objects. The 
mind has been gradually thrown more and more upon 
its own intrinsic resources ; and that ambition, which 
for a long series of centuries has striven for the attain- 
ment of external power, wealth, station, and influence, 
at whatever cost, now discovers an ample and glorious 
field for its highest aspirations, in the legitimate exer- 
cise of those intellectual and moral faculties of its 
beinjj, bv which it can secure the richest treasures of 
the universe, and look forward to an inexhaustible field 
of pleasurable exertion constantly expanding before 
it. The mind, properly disciplined and directed, need 
never go beyond itself for the materials of greatness, 
power, and enjoyment. It has but to appreciate its 
own capacities, and explore and develope its own re- 
sources, to find its appropriate field of exertion. It has 
but to become fully sensible of its own innate dignity 
and worth, its derivation from the great source of all 
excellence and perfection, its superiority to the ma- 
terial world by which it is surrounded, and its tendency 
to advancement, to shake off the inglorious bondage 
by which it is rendered subservient to the " beggarly 
elements " of time and sense, and to press onward to 
that perfection which is constantly presented to its view 
in the exalted attributes of its being. In the discharge 
of the daily and hourly duties of life, in acts of be- 



168 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

neficence and kindness, in social intercourse, in public 
or private employment, in the cultivation and discipline 
of its own powers, and in the diffusion and extension 
of knowledge and virtue, consists its true greatness — 
its lasting enjoyment. This is the end of all educa- 
tion ; and it can be accomplished only by and through 
self-culture. 

25. The teacher, therefore, who has communicated 
to his pupils the power of self-culture, together with 
an enlightened knowledge of the physical, intellectual, 
and moral constitution of their being ; who has eradi- 
cated the vicious propensities of their nature, or ren- 
dered them subordinate to the eternal principles of 
duty, and directed the expanding faculties of the mind 
to their legitimate field of action, — has discharged his 
whole duty ; has added to the stock of human virtue 
and human happiness ; has enlarged the boundaries of 
knowledge, widened the sphere of civilization, and 
elevated the standard of human nature. If he has 
failed to do this, his ministry cannot have been other 
than a disastrous one. If he has educated the intellect 
merely, — if he has permitted the precocious weeds of 
vice to spring up and flourish unchecked, the feeble 
and stinted growth of true knowledge in a soil thus ex- 
hausted of its strength by the nourishment it has 
afforded to the poisonous plants which desolate its sur- 
face will soon be stifled ; while the passions will have 
been furnished with inexhaustible means of perpetu- 
ating their fearful ascendancv and extending their iron 
dominion. Better, far better, that the mind should 
remain in the deepest darkness of ignorance, than that 
the lights of science should shine upon it, only to 
nourish and invigorate the noxious plants of vice and 
crime. 

26. It may with safety be said that a well-regulated 
and well-directed public opinion is a more efficient 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 169 

agent in the work of education than all the systems of 
instruction which have been or can be devised. If the 
prevailing tendency of the age, and of the community 
ill which we live, be favorable to a progressive ad- 
vancement in wisdom, and virtue, and knowledge, as 
the basis of the only sound philosophy of human life 
— as worthy of a general concentration of all its in- 
terests, passions, and feelings, — the mind and the heart 
will involuntarily take that direction ; the moral powers 
will assume their proper preponderance ; and all the 
various faculties of our nature will harmoniously coop- 
erate in their respective spheres. If, on the other 
hand, the attainment of wealth, the pursuit of pleasure, 
the struggle for power, for distinction, and for worldly 
applause, are found to be the principal objects of am- 
bition, and to engross the energies of the mass of man- 
kind, — the most perfect system of education will fail in 
accomplishing any permanent results, or in securing 
any general adoption. It is in vain to impress upon 
the mind, amid the associations of youth, innocence, 
and happiness, the purest doctrines of the most sound 
and elevated philosophy, if, when the hallowed sanc- 
tuary of home is overpassed, and the delightful groves 
of the academy left behind, the sober realities of life 
are discovered to be a compound of interested selfish- 
ness, unworthy aspirations, and unchastened ambition, 
while nobler views, nobler efforts, and a more exalted 
benevolence, seldom find a congenial soil, where they 
may bud, blossom, and expand. It is in vain to expa- 
tiate upon the beauty and sublimity of moral excel- 
lence, while the world's ready and unbounded applause 
awaits the successful results of bold effrontery, low 
duplicity, persevering cunning, and well-dissembled 
craft. The highest order of intellect, even when com- 
bined with the sternest moral and religious principles, 
can rarely mingle with the base elements of the busy 
15 



170 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

world, and escape the deep contamination of the 
contact. 

27. There are few circumstances or conditions in 
life, in which we can render ourselves to any extent 
practically independent of the powerful influences 
which the opinion of those around us, and of the public 
at large, exert upon our conduct. There is a principle 
deeply implanted in our nature, which compels us to 
regulate even our most trivial actions, and gradually to 
form our character, and mould our sentiments, by the 
standard which prevails in the community to which we 
belong. History affords ample evidence of the pres- 
ence and the effects of this all-pervading power ; and 
hence the formidable obstacles which have, in all ages, 
been interposed to the progress of those great reforms 
in religion, in political economy, and moral philosophy, 
as well as in scientific knowledge, which from time to 
time have agitated and disturbed society. The minds 
and actions of men so insensibly assimilate to each 
other, and so imperceptibly is the power of public 
opinion concentrated around the established institu- 
tions, modes of thinking, and ordinary pursuits, that 
the slightest innovation upon the magic circle drawn 
by habit, by custom, and by association, excites at once 
the astonishment and indignation of all, and places 
the daring offender beyond the pale of pardon. It is 
needless to adduce instances, abounding in the annals 
of our race, of the melancholy effects of this potent 
influence. All of elevation to which the morals, the 
intellect, and the refinement of the present age has at- 
tained, has been imparted to it by the slow and painful 
developement of principles promulgated in the face of 
danger, and often of death, and maintained in the 
midst of a fiery struggle against principalities and 
powers, and a world in arms, madly bent upon the 
overthrow of champions, of whom, indeed, it was not 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 171 

worthy. We are accustomed to flatter ourselves, in 
these davs of greater enlightenment, that a more cor- 
rect appreciation of the great truths of the moral and 
physical world, place us at an immeasurable distance 
from the erroneous influences of those ages of dark- 
ness and gloom. Thanks to the expanding spirit of a 
progressive civilization, this proud boast is, to a great 
extent, borne out by the evidence of facts. Under the 
peculiar and inestimable institutions of our own favored 
land, the intellect and the heart are indeed left free to 
accomplish their brightest and noblest conceptions, 
without the apprehension of physical restraint. But 
these institutions, while they have wisely interposed 
the most efficient checks to the introduction of a per- 
secuting and an intolerant spirit, have, at the same 
time, conferred an overwhelming power upon public 
opinion. Before that power the highest and the lowest 
are compelled, by a moral force which it is in vain to 
withstand, to bow, with an implicit deference. 

28. The most formidable obstacle to the general 
diffusion of knowledge, by means of a sound and 
effectual system of public instruction, exists, it is to 
be apprehended, in the indifference of the great body 
of the people to this subject, when compared with the 
other important undertakings of the age. The wisdom 
of our ancestors has, it is true, transmitted to us the 
firm foundations of national wealth and prosperity, in 
the admirable institutions under which we live ; but it 
remains for us to erect upon this substantial base a 
superstructure against which the winds and the waves 
of time shall have no power. The acquisition of na- 
tional and individual riches will not secure us against 
the fatal inroads of corruption and effeminate lux- 
ury ; nor will the splendid monuments of inventive 
genius, or the daring efforts of unbounded enterprise, 
prevent the corroding progress of licentiousness and 
vice. Those immense combinations of physical and 



172 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

mental power, which, in so short a period, have con- 
verted the pathless wilderness of our western world 
into the magnificent and flourishing abodes of civiliza- 
tion and refinement, are justly subjects of admiration 
and astonishment. They have opened new and inter- 
minable sources of wealth, and developed the wonder- 
ful resources of an unfettered nation of freemen. The 
continued exertion of the intellectual strength which 
has been in this manner put forth, and its direction into 
the great channels of mental and moral improvement, 
would advance us, with inconceivable rapidity, to the 
summit of attainable excellence in all that constitutes 
the enduring glory of a people. 

29. It is, however, too true, that our exertions and 
our ambition have been circumscribed, in a great de- 
gree, within the boundaries of our immediate or re- 
mote interest, in a pecuniary view. The spirit of gain 
has obtained too strong an ascendancy over us. The 
tendency of this state of things, if persisted in, however 
we may deceive ourselves by present and flattering 
appearances, is inevitably downward. Public senti- 
ment, unless it assumes a higher direction, will become 
auxiliary to the ultimate destruction of all those re- 
deeming virtues which sustain and keep alive the fab- 
ric of our republican institutions. While the powerful 
energies of our combined strength are exhausted in 
the every-day pursuits of active life, and in the strug- 
gle for wealth and its attendant advantages, the culti- 
vation of the mind is necessarily neglected, the moral 
and social virtues fall into disrepute, the bonds which 
unite us as intellectual and accountable beings are 
weakened, the harmonious action of the body politic 
is deranged, and the chief blessings of life are sacri- 
ficed on the altars erected to individual avarice and 
grasping gain. We may boast of our institutions of 
learning, of the liberal policy adopted by our govern- 
ments, of the perfection to which we have carried the 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 173 

details of our systems of instruction, of the sums which 
we annually expend in their support, and of the inter- 
est taken in their welfare by the great and the good in 
every part of our land ; unless we can enlist the full 
and effective cooperation of public sentiment to carry 
forward and expand the great work which has been 
commenced, unless we can transfer to this vast field 
of labor the resistless energies and indomitable spirit 
which have effected so much in other departments of 
enterprise, we cannot hope to extend the sphere of 
human intellect, to enlarge the boundaries of human 
ambition, to elevate the understanding, better the 
heart, and amend the life. There is enough of be- 
nevolence and of philanthropy in our land. The calls 
of charity, from the remotest corners of the globe, have 
been heard and answered ; the appeals of patriotism 
have not been sounded in insensible ears ; the demands 
of the Christian religion have been responded to, 
wherever they have been proclaimed ; the sufferings, 
the errors, and even the crimes of humanity, have en- 
listed the feelings and called forth the efforts of thou- 
sands to their relief. Whence is it, then, that the early 
cultivation of the intellectual and moral powers should 
excite an interest comparatively so feeble ; that the 
progress of education should be watched with an in- 
difference so alarming ; that every effort to elevate the 
standard of reform, in this respect, should be paralyzed 
by the want of that sustaining and invigorating influ- 
ence which can alone accomplish great results ? 

30. We appeal, then, in behalf of the cause of edu- 
cation, to every individual of our flourishing and happy 
land, who feels an interest in its continued prosperity, 
who would promote its substantial greatness, who 
would preserve its noble institutions, and transmit its 
blessings, unimpaired, to future generations. We in- 
voke the active, energetic, and spirited exertions of 
the friends of the human race, wherever they are to 



174 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

be found ; of those who rightly appreciate the influ- 
ence of intellectual supremacy, who would enlarge the 
borders of reason, and extend its sway over the mate- 
rial universe. We would enlist the strongest and best 
feelings of the parent, the comprehensive benevolence 
of the philanthropist, the proud ambition of the patriot, 
the devoted energy of the statesman, and the most sin- 
cere ardor of the Christian, in an undertaking which 
promises to multiply the blessings of the social and 
domestic circle, widen the sphere of charity, cement 
the strong foundations of government, strengthen the 
bonds of our beloved Union, and promote the present 
and future happiness of mankind. While we cheer- 
fully and gratefully concede the value of what has 
already been effected in our own and in foreign climes, 
we would not stop here ; we would transfer the bur- 
den, which has been so nobly assumed and borne by 
the few, to the shoulders of the many. Where the 
highest and deepest interests of all are concerned, it is 
essential that every one should fully and clearly appre- 
ciate the nature and extent of the duty required at his 
hands. To drag out a few painful and unprofitable 
years of existence in a world crowded with misery is 
but a poor boon. To enjoy the luxuries of life, and to 
revel in the wealth which is always at the command 
of him who devotes to its acquisition his energies and 
his powers, can afford but an empty satisfaction to one 
who duly reflects on the instability of fortune and the 
vicissitudes of time. But to live for the benefit of the 
human race ; to be instrumental in adding to the cup 
of human happiness, in diminishing the amount of 
human wretchedness, in diffusing the beneficial influ- 
ences of a sound and pure morality, in contributing to 
the stock of valuable knowledge, in bringing it heme 
to thousands who would otherwise never have partici- 
pated in its blessings, and in elevating the affections, 
strengthening the virtue, and refining the character of 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS. 175 

of our fellow-beings, — this is an ambition worthy of 
our high nature. The proudest monuments of enter- 
prise and the most finished specimens of the arts can- 
not entitle their projectors and authors to the high 
meed of commendation which those deserve who are 
thus prepared to overlook the perishable enjoyments 
which surround them for the nobler and imperishable 
fruits of a comprehensive and enlightened benevolence. 
The age in which we live, with ajl its vast and gigan- 
tic undertakings, if destined to survive in the remem- 
brance of posterity to all coming time, must be distin- 
guished, not for the influence which it has exerted on 
material substances alone, or chiefly, but for that 
which has been brought to bear on intellect, on mor- 
als, on refinement, and civilization. The part we are 
to act in determining this character rests with our- 
selves — its consequences with posterity. The respon- 
sibility is a fearful one ; may it be nobly, conscien- 
tiously, and efficiently met ! 



176 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE- 



CHAPTER IX. 

COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 

[The following Report on the subject of Commow 
School Libraries was prepared during the last fall, in 
pursuance of the special direction of the State Superinten- 
dent of Common Schools, by Henry S. Randall, Esq. 
Superintendent of Common Schools of Cortland Coun- 
ty. Deeming it an able and satisfactory exposition of the 
great subject which it discusses, the Author of the present 
work applied for and readily obtained permission to insert 
this Report, as the concluding chapter of the present work. 
Thesubject is one which commends itself to the best regards 
of every enlightened friend of Popular Education ; and 
the views contained in the Report cannot fail of proving 
acceptable to those who feel an interest in the proper and 
judicious disposition of the liberal fund annually appropri- 
ated by the State to the diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 
through the medium of the eleven thousand District Li- 
braries, scattered over its surface. If, by the publication of 
this report in the present work, the Author can succeed in 
giving to it a more general circulation than it would pro- 
bably receive as an appendage to a legislative document, 
he will consider himself as having rendered an essential 
service to the interests of elementary education in this 
respect. 

It is proper also to add, that the views contained in the 
report, and the principles laid down with reference to the 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 177 

proper selection of books for the several District Libraries, 
are fully endorsed and approved by the State Superinten- 
dent of Common Schools in his last annual report to the 
Legislature.] 



The page of history furnishes few examples where 
a government has as well subserved the just and pa- 
ternal ends of its creation, as did the State of New- 
York, in providing that libraries of sound and useful 
literature should be placed within the reach of all her 
inhabitants, and rendered accessible to them without 
charge. This philanthropic and admirably conceiv- 
ed measure may be justly regarded as, next to the 
institution of common schools, the most important in 
that series of causes, which will give its distinctive 
character to our civilization as a people. The civi- 
lizations of ancient and modern times present a 
marked distinction. While the former shot forth at 
different epochs, with an intense brilliancy, it was 
confined to the few ; and the fame of those few has 
descended to us, like the light of occasional solitary 
stars, shining forth from surrounding darkness. The 
ancient libraries, though rich in their stores and vast 
in extent, diffused their benefits with equal exclu- 
siveness. The Egyptian peasant who cultivated the 
plains of the Nile, or the artizan who wrought in 
her princely cities, was made neither wiser nor bet- 
ter by the locked up treasures of the Alexandrian ; 
and though the Grecian, Roman, and even Persian 
commanders plundered hostile nations of their books, 
no portion of their priceless wealth entered the a- 
bodes of common humanity, to diffuse intelligence 
and joy. 



178 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

The art of printing first began to popularize civili- 
zation. To make it universal, however, it was ne- 
cessary that all should be taught to read. The Com- 
mon School supplies this link in the chain of agen- 
cies. But another was yet wanting. Not only must 
man be taught to read, but that mental aliment to 
which reading merely gives access, must be brought 
within his reach ; and it is surely as wise and phi- 
lanthropic, indeed as necessary, on the part of gov- 
ernment, to supply such moral and intellectual food, 
as to give the means of partaking of it, and an appe- 
tite for its enjoyment. Without the last boon, the 
first would be, in the case of the masses, compara- 
tively useless, — nay, amidst the empty and frequent- 
ly worse than empty literature which overflows from 
our cheap and teeming press, it would oftentimes 
prove positively injurious. In the language of the 
philosophic Wayland, " we have put it into the pow- 
er of every man to read, and read he will whether 
for good or for evil. It remains yet to be decided 
whether what we have already done shall prove a 
blessing or a curse." 

New-York has the proud honor of being the first 
government in the world, which has established a 
free library system adequate to the wants and exi- 
gencies of her whole population. It extends its ben- 
efits equally to all conditions, and in all local situa- 
tions. It not only gives profitable employment to 
the man of leisure, but it passes the threshold of the 
laborer, offering him amusement and instruction af- 
ter his daily toil is over, without increasing his fa- 
tigues or subtracting from his earnings. It is an in- 
teresting reflection that there is no portion of our ter- 
ritory so wild or remote, where man has penetrated, 
that the library has not peopled the wilderness a- 
round him, with the good and wise of this and other 
ages, who address to him their silent monitions, cul- 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 179 

tivating and strengthening within him, even amidst 
his rude pursuits, the principles of humanity and 
civilization. 

It has been objected by a few short sighted men, 
to the library system, that a portion of the people do 
not reap any benefit from it, because they will not 
read the books thus placed within their reach. The 
fact is unfortunately true, but it argues a defect else- 
where than in the system. Among a population 
comprising every grade of education and intelli- 
gence, and of whom but a limited number, compara- 
tively speaking, enjoyed opportunities for cultivating 
an early taste for reading, it could not be anticipated 
that all would immediately avail themselves of the 
advantages thus proffered to them. The mind, like the 
body, acquires regulated habits of action. If it does 
not learn early to seek enjoyment and instruction in 
books, it rarely does in after life, unless it be in 
cases where a strong natural taste for reading has 
not, for the want of books, been able to previously 
develope itself. And although the steadily advanc- 
ing circulation of the libraries shows that much has 
been and will yet be gained among our adult pop- 
ulation, it is to the rising generation mainly, that we 
must look for the theatre of their greatest triumphs. 
In the rising generation the taste for reading must 
be formed. But conceding there should always be 
a portion who should obstinately reject these ad- 
vantages, — does this furnish a sufficient reason 
why they should be withheld from those whose 
tastes and aspirations are more elevated, whose thirst 
for knowledge is stronger ? Should but a small 
portion of the inhabitants of any school district be 
made wiser and happier, nay, should one young 
mind be trained forward by this means to a career 
of usefulness and honor, would not the expense of 
the most extensive library be more than compensa- 



180 IVIENTAL AND MOEAL CULTURE. 

ted for ? How many " mute inglorious " sons of 
Genius have first felt within them the kindling of 
Promethean fires ; how many great undertakings, 
important discoveries, and sublime achievements have 
first shadowed forth the dim outlines of their inception 
on the mental speculum, upon the perusal of the wri- 
tings of some preceding wayfarer in the same, or 
some kindred path of renown, the biographies of il- 
lustrious men fully attest. We have it on his own 
authority that the reading of Defoe's Essay on 
Projects, first planted in the mighty mind of Frank- 
lin the germ of those discoveries, by which, in the 
language of Bishop Doane, " the poor tallow-chan- 
dler's son added new provinces to the domain of sci- 
ence, bound the lightning with a hempen cord, and 
brought it harmless from the skies." Franklin's is 
but an isolated example among a thousand, which 
occur to the student of biography. Genius, like 
grosser possessions, has its lines of descent, though 
unlike them, it heeds not consanguineal ties, or those 
of country or tongue. The boy who to-day plays 
round the cabin of his sire, in wildernesses which 
skirt the Mississippi, may, from an accidental peru- 
sal of some popular exposition of their discoveries — 
a reading of some portion of their works, or those of 
other writers on the same topics, be led in a few short 
years, to soar with a loftier flight, and pierce with a deep- 
er ken into the arcana of the Universe, than have Ara- 
go and Herschel ; strike the lyre with a sublimer touch 
than Goethe or Wordsworth ; or discourse on the 
philosophies of the material and spiritual world, with 
a deeper comprehensiveness than Cuvier or Cousin, 
— and the same boy, untouched with a live coal from 
the altars of their genius, may pass through life an 
indifferent farmer or mechanic — not conspicuous 
even among the dignitaries of the town in which he 
lives. It is true that such master spirits axe not 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 181 

vouchsafed to every nation or age — much less may 
we anticipate that they will start up in every school 
district. Though the occasional reward, they are 
not the first nor greatest end of those means which 
we put in operation for the amelioration of our 
species. 

It is better that all should be raised to the neces- 
sary standard — that all should be made intelligent 
and the means of rational happiness placed within 
their grasp, than that a few should be elevated far 
above the intellectual companionship of their kind, 
and the masses be left sunk in ignorance and sensu- 
ality. The educator works the great mine of hu- 
manity for the commoner metals ; these he sepa- 
rates from their dross, and prepares for the use- 
ful purposes of life ; — and though veins of rich- 
er mineral, or the sparkling gem may occasion- 
ally reward his efforts, experience has taught him 
that their occurrence is at too rare intervals, to justi- 
fy him in abandoning for their exclusive pursuit, ores, 
which if of less value, are a thousand times more 
abundant and accessible. 

A colonial nation, we inherited the matured litera- 
ture of England : but in our country as in that, this 
literature has not extended to the masses. In insti- 
tuting a general library system, we created or rather 
put in circulation, the first really popular literature, 
beyond that contained in the newspaper, and in the 
books of the Sunday school. Can any one doubt 
then, that we have reached a point or phase in our 
civilization which demands the exercise of a provi- 
dent care, an anxious, if not a timid circumspec- 
tion ? 

It was a saying of Fletcher, " let me make the 
songs of a people, and I care not who makes their 
laws." There has been an age, when the declara- 
tion would not have been an exaggerated one. With- 



182 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

out the Iliad, Greece might never have had her 
Thermopylae and Marathon. Her irresistible com- 
manders fought in the ideal presence of, and weigh- 
ed themselves in the balance with, Achilles and 
Agamemnon. Until the period of her subversion, 
Olympus rested not more firmly on the soil of 
Greece, than did the impress of Homer's genius on 
her character and literature. The influence of the 
bard or scald over the ancient British, Germanic 
and Scandinavian tribes, partook of the character of 
direct inspiration. At his strains of plaintive lamen- 
tation, they listened subdued, and wept ; when he 
exchanged these for the stern images of war and vic- 
tory, they clashed their shields in fury, and shouted 
for battle. He could subdue the fiery warrior to 
" more than woman's mildness," or with a fierce and 
overwhelming mastery, drive him forth convulsed 
and foaming with the mad and unquenchable fury 
of the Bersaerkir. 

Under our colder skies, and in a less imaginative 
age, the poet has lost his exclusive power. Suscep- 
tibilities yet remain in the popular mind, and genius 
has not lost the art of reaching them. But it 
must make its approaches through other avenues. 
Mankind now study utility — and though they may 
sometimes err in the object, all are united in the pur- 
suit. Mankind, too, have begun to reason. They 
may reason unsoundly, but few entertain fixed opin- 
ions on any subject, which were not adopted, by 
what constituted, in their own estimation, a correct 
process of reasoning. We may convince a man with 
false reasoning, but he is not disposed to take any 
thing on authority — much less could he be reached 
by a direct appeal to the imagination. It is singular 
to note the rapidity with which that faculty of the 
mind, which we term reason, has asserted its long 
delayed but rightful mastery — and the substantial 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 183 

power and influence whieh it confers on those who 
possess it in an eminent degree. Only so far back 
as the days of Elizabeth, that mighty philosopher,* 
of whom it has been said,t in reference to his prede- 
cessors, that " he drew a sponge over the table of 
human knowledge," was socially, politically, and 
physically, a taper which one breath of the haughty 
Tudor, or even of the weak Stuart, could have ex- 
tinguished forever. His writings would have been 
as chaff opposed to the will of royalty. Indepen- 
dent of his titles and offices, it may well be doubted 
whether they would have given him the considera- 
tion in the minds of his countrymen, enjoyed by any 
second rate servitor of the court. He would have 
been as the veriest nothing compared with the minion 
Leicester, the profligate and contemptible Bucking- 
ham ! Turn we over the page to the reign of the 
the third George. A Pitt and a Burke already shook 
aloft the sceptre of mind over that of royalty. They 
reasoned with mankind, and they conquered them. 
Xow, a statesman^ elevated to the peerage of England 
for his talents, fears not, and hesitates not to attack the 
memory of the grandsire of his Sovereign, with a zeal 
and energy which reminds us of the mad hermit of 
Engaddi crushing rocks beneath his iron flail ! In 
France the descendants of Conde's and Montmoren- 
cy's give place to the sons of advocates and arti- 
zans.§ In our own country, if a statesman of any 
high rank can be pointed out, who can be said to 
have owed any thing to an inherited great name or 
distinction, or who can actually lay claim to it, he 

* Bacon. f By Goethe. $ Brougham. 

§ It is stated in an anonymous French work of which Mr. 
R. M. Walsh published a translation in 1841, that the cele- 
brated Guizot is the son of a provincial advocate — Thiers 
the son of a blacksmith. 



184 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

forms an exception to a rule which is nearly uni- 
versal. 

The pale student sitting in his study, if it be given 
to him to grapple with and to vanquish the human 
understanding, exerts a deeper influence — one that 
will be longer, and if properly directed, more bene- 
ficially felt, than that wielded by whole hosts of more 
observed worldlings, — by the official, the warrior, or 
the man of wealth. He has neither armies nor trea- 
sures — but he has books. With these can he con- 
quer. No barriers impede his progress — no fortress 
walls can shut him out. He requires no garrisons 
to maintain his conquests — no new contests to re- 
assert his supremacy. Every understanding over- 
come by him, becomes his fortress — every captive, a 
willing recruit. To widen a former proposition 
somewhat, there can be no doubt that he who can 
control the reading of a people, can control their 
character. He who has access to every ear at all 
times, and on all occasions ; who can follow man to 
his fireside, and accompany him in his hours of re- 
laxation from daily cares ; who can steal with him to 
his closet and into solitude, and be often present in 
his meditations, even when his hands are engaged 
in toil, — can and must, if not suddenly, gradually 
and certainly, mould and influence his tastes, his 
opinions, and his character. 

Such is the powerful and omnipresent agent, 
which by means of the school libraries, we have 
brought in contact with our population ! To give it 
still greater influence as well as importance, it is the 
first, and thereby the forming literature of the mas- 
ses. Who shall doubt that by it, the character of 
our people may be elevated and dignified — lessons of 
virtue, moderation and stability deeply impressed on 
them — in a word, that our moral and intellectual 
civilization may be materially and permanently ad- 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 185 

Vanced, — or on the other hand, that all these advan- 
tages may be thrown away, and the seeds of disor- 
der, licentiousness and crime, sown in fatal profusion ? 

The method of selecting these libraries has alrea- 
dy been established. With that strong reliance on 
popular virtue and popular understanding, which ac- 
cords so well with the theory and genius of our in- 
stitutions, the choice of books has, in the first in- 
stance, been left exclusively to the immediate agents 
of the people. Should the event justify this reli- 
ance, it will afford strong, and to the philanthropist, 
cheering proof of the same ability on the part of a 
well informed and free people, to conduct the suc- 
cessive steps of their moral and intellectual progres- 
sion, that experience has already demonstrated they 
possess, in meliorating their political systems. 
Should they fail, and should the school officer fail in 
exercising those restraining powers vested in him in 
necessary cases, the libraries will stand a humilia- 
ting monument of weakness, folly, and wasted 
means. 

Before proceeding to a direct examination of the 
books which should, or should not be introduced into 
the school libraries, it may be well to pause and ask 
what, if any, are the adverse agencies which threaten 
to give a wrong direction to their selection. By far 
the most dangerous, are those which grow out of the 
prevailing literature of the day. The discovery of 
processes cheapening and expediting the multiplica- 
tion and diffusion of books has known no limit. Pe- 
cuniary hazard no longer imposes its salutary re- 
strictions on the publisher, and the work which goes 
into the hands of the London compositor on the first 
day of the month, will, before its last, have been read 
in the form of a mammoth newspaper, or a cheap 
pamphlet, in villages within the shadow of the 
16 



386 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE, 

Kocky Mountains. Though there are exceptions to 
the remark, though there are Bancrofts, and Pres- 
cotts, and Alisons, and Guizots and other worthy la- 
borers in the field, it cannot be denied or concealed 
that the current, and most generally read publica- 
tions of the day, taken as a whole, are of a frivolous 
and uninstructive character. The massive literature 
of the concluding portion of the seventeenth, and be- 
ginning of the eighteenth centuries, may be retained 
on the shelves of the library, as the antique dresses 
of the courtiers of Anne and Louis are preserved in 
the wardrobes of their descendants ; but the former 
would excite nearly as much surprise in the hands 
of the mass of fashionable readers, as would the lat- 
ter on their persons. 

This prevailing literature, as has been already 
said, has not reached the masses. But it is the fash- 
ionable literature, and thereby contagious ; and it is 
the cheap literature. It is the first which the book- 
merchant spreads on his counter, and which the 
itinerant vender presses on his unread purchaser. 
When we take into consideration the fact, that a 
large portion of those who purchase for the school 
libraries, have had no previous acquaintance with 
the books so purchased, it would be surprising in- 
deed, if the class in consideration did not find their 
way into, nay, swallow up these libraries, unless the 
most ceaseless vigilance is exercised. In every 
county and town, the bookseller, who will faithfully 
point out to those purchasing for school libraries, 
such books, and such alone as are suitable for that 
purpose, should receive the marked and publicly ex- 
pressed approbation of the local superintendents. 

And is there not another agent, which has wound 
itself, and circulated like life blood through every ar- 
tery of the body politic — which is as cherished as it 
is universal — which must too often be ranked with 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 1S7 

those whose tendencies are to give a wrong bias to 
popular reading ? No man of sense or intelligence, 
would wish to curtail the circulation of the newspa- 
per. Liberty, deprived of her free press, were a 
beleagured camp stripped of its sentinels. But has 
it not been conceded as well as deplored, by the 
many able and truthful men who assist in wielding 
this mighty engine, that its objects have been often 
prostituted — that it has often sunk to become the type, 
as well as the purveyor, of the most frivolous and worth- 
less literature of the day. Who shall wonder that the 
boy's first quest in the school library, as has been so 
often complained, is after some tale of atrocity,^ se- 
duction,! or sickly sentimentality, t when from his 
earliest childhood their epitomes and counterparts 
have been weekly placed before him, in the miscall- 
ed " family" newspaper ! We may be thankful that 
should the libraries resist these influences, they will 
soon correct them ! 

Having glanced at the importance of making the 
common school libraries a vehicle of correct litera- 
ture, and specified some causes operating to produce 
a contrary result, it would seem appropriate in an 
officer, who in addition to his ordinary official cogni- 
zance of the subject, stands specially charged with 
its examination by the head of the department, to 
submit some general reflections on the nature and 
character of the books which should, or should not 
be admitted into these libraries ; and the principles 
on which such discrimination should be made. It 
would unreasonably extend the limits of this report, 
and occupy a province more appropriately belong- 



* Pirates' Book, Lives of Celebrated Banditti of all Na- 
tions. Newgate Calendar, etc. 

f George Barnwell, Eliza Wharton, etc. 

X A large proportion of the current novels of the day. 



188 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

ing to the State Superintendent, to attempt to give 
an extended list of approved or disapproved individ- 
ual books. The propriety of taking such a step, on 
the part of that functionary, will be hereinafter dis- 
cussed. With a few exceptions, introduced more 
particularly by way of illustration, this report will 
confine itself to classes of books. For more conveni- 
ent reference, these will be considered under sepa- 
rate heads, even at the expense of occasional repe- 
tition. 

2. Enumeration. 

There are about ten thousand books in the com- 
mon school libraries of the county.^ There does 
not appear a proportionate increase from the num- 
ber reported last year, from the fact that the false 
system of enumeration, in regard to double districts, 
alluded to in my last annual report, has been cor- 
rected, by a recent order of the Superintendent. 

3. Circulation. 

The average circulation of books has increased 
since the preceding year. I think it then did not 

* There are 875,000 volumes in the common school li- 
braries of the State. It may be interesting, in this connex- 
ion, to take into view the number of volumes, in some of the 
most celebrated libraries of ancient and modern times. The 
Alexandrian is said, probably fabulously, to have contained 
700,000. The library of the Moors, at Cordova, in the 
twelfth century, contained 250,000. The royal library at 
Pans, contains 650,000 ; Munich, 500,000 ■ the Bodleian, 
500,000 ; St. Petersburg, 400,000 ; Copenhagen, 400,000 , 
the Vatican, 360,000 ; Berlin, 320.000 ; Vienna, 300,000 ; 
British Museum, 270,000 ; Dresden, 250,000; Gottingen, 
200,000. 

Of American libraries, Harvard College has about 40,000 ; 
Boston Athenaeum, say 30,000 ; Philadelphia, say 30,000 j 
N. Y. State library, say 20,000. 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. ]89 

exceed one-fourth of the whole number ; now, it 
will fall little short of one-third. 

The system established in this State, requires a 
distinct library in each district, thereby narrowing 
the range of selection to the means possessed by 
each ; and in any town, the several districts will 
possess, in the main, the same books. The extension 
of the system proposed by Mr. Barnard, in his Annual 
Report to the Board of Commissioners of Common 
Schools in Connecticut, in 1841, may be thought to 
present some advantages in this respect, not posses- 
sed by our own. Mr. Barnard recommends that the 
entire sum appropriated to each town be expended 
under the direction of the town officer, and the books 
placed in as many cases as there are districts, each 
case to pass in succession through all the districts in 
the town. Each district will thus, at any one time, 
have access to as many books as under the other 
plan, and in the end, to all the books in the several 
libraries. This increases the variety, by the num- 
ber of districts, and keeps up the interest of novelty 
by a contstant supply of new authors. By local 
regulations, the cases can be returned to the town 
superintendent, at certain stated periods, for inspec- 
tion, as well as for exchange, and thus the books 
will be more likely to be preserved, and any damage 
or loss assessed to the proper district. 

Mr. Barnard, in his forthcoming volume, " on Na- 
tional Education," strongly urges the importance of 
having all books which are published exclusively for 
school libraries, contain a glossary, explaining briefly 
all technical or scientific terms or names, dates and 
events not readily understood by juvenile readers. 
The want of such a glossary, impairs the value of 
many books now in the libraries, not only for juve- 
nile readers, but for a large portion of adults, whose 



190 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

education and reading has been limited. The school 
library, published under the sanction of the Board of 
Education of Massachusetts, is in this respect, supe- 
rior to any other now before the public. 

4. Condition of Books. 

The condition of the books continues generally 
good. The binding on many of them, however, is 
too frail for their proper preservation. This is a 
point which should receive particular attention from 
those who purchase for districts ; and local officers 
should studiously discourage the purchase of the 
books of publishers, whom parsimony or negligence 
renders inattentive in this particular. 

5. Regulations. 

I adhere to the opinion expressed by me in my last 
annual report, that the library regulations, as a 
whole, require no amendment. I would recom- 
mend, however, that authority be conferred on coun- 
ty superintendents to extend on application, in suita- 
ble cases, the time during which books may be re- 
tained out of the libraries. 

6. Size of Books. 

The size of books may seem a trivial considera- 
tion in this connection. Experience, however, has 
demonstrated that it is an important one. Unless 
in extensive libraries, where a wide range of read- 
ing tastes are to be gratified, as in the case of cities 
or very populous districts, it is not advisable to pur- 
chase the largest and most elaborate class of publi- 
cations, on any given topic. The objection against 
them is two-fold. They are too expensive, and the 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 191 

chance is not so great that they will be generally read. 
Hume's History of England and its continuations, for 
example, would exhaust the library fund in many 
small districts for several years, and thus preclude the 
purchase of other histories and works on other topics 
equally important. How many children, and, among 
an actively engaged and laboring population, how 
many adults, would undertake and finally accomplish 
any thing like a careful and well-digested perusal of 
this great work ? 

On the other hand, books should not be purchased, 
which, to secure brevity, have been reduced to mere 
epitomes or compendiums, or, what is far worse, a 
class of publications greatly abounding — put in a con- 
densed form to render them more saleable — which are 
compiled, rather than written, by authors incapable of 
grasping their subjects, and utterly deficient in style. 
Marshall's Life of Washington, or the Life of Frank- 
lin by his Grandson, may be too elaborate works for 
the smaller school libraries ; but who would leave the 
lives of these illustrious men to the handling of an 
author of the intellectual or literary capacity of 
Weems ? 

7. Useful, as contradistinguished from merely 
amusing, Books. 

The first cardinal rule to be adopted in relation to 
the character of all books admitted into the school 
libraries, is, that they shall be of a character to diffuse 
sound and useful instruction. If any doubts could 
have existed on this point, they have been settled by 
repeated declarations of the State Superintendent. 
Amusement is not incompatible with instruction. It 
may add to the zest and beguile the difficulties of 
acquiring knowledge. But mere amusement consti- 
tutes no part of the objects sought in the establishment 
of the school libraries ; and when it forms the prin- 



192 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

cipal, or even a considerable separate end of literature, 
such literature sinks below the standard of that which 
a government may, with dignity, provide for and recom- 
mend to its people. In deciding what books shall be 
considered useful ones, however, we are to have regard 
to the mental developement and previous acquirements 
of those intended to be benefited by their perusal. 
We are to bear in mind that it is as easy to fall into 
the error of soaring above, as of falling below, the 
comprehension of the reader, and that it is a mistake 
quite as fatal, and perhaps not less frequent. A ripe 
and liberally educated scholar would not find instruc- 
tion in works which would be deeply instructive to 
thousands of our population, and an ordinarily well- 
educated man would scarcely seek instruction in books 
adapted to the capacities of childhood. This brings us 
to the consideration of an interesting and important de- 
partment in the libraries. 

8. Juvenile Books. 

But does it follow, because manhood and youth re- 
quire different intellectual aliment, that none shall be 
supplied to the latter ? It has already been said that 
youth is the period to fix and cultivate habits of read- 
ing, and that, if a taste for it is not acquired at this 
period, it rarely is in after life. Every day that we 
defer to place suitable books in the hands of the child, 
after he has attained sufficient maturity of understand- 
ing to receive moral and intellectual impressions, to 
treasure up useful facts, is so much time irretrievably 
squandered. And there is another weighty and solemn 
consideration. If we neglect to sow good seed in a 
soil which, like this, cannot, by the very law of its 
being, remain a moment unproductive, what warrant 
have we that 

" Weeds of dark luxuriance, tares of haste." 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 193 

will not spring up and occupy it in spite of all our 
subsequent efforts ? 

Shall we attempt to drag up the mind and taste to a 
precocious developement, by inciting children to read 
works adapted to fully matured capacities ? We 
ought not to, if we could — we cannot, if we make the 
attempt. That the mind can be led forward, and its 
powers matured with far greater rapidity, by adapting 
instruction to its feeblest state of developement, and 
only increasing the solidity and strength of the mental 
aliment, to keep pace with its gradually unfolding 
energies, is as true in relation to the instruction sought 
to be derived from the library as to that given in the 
school-room ; and to the discovery of this fact in its 
connection with the latter, we are indebted for the 
most important improvements in modern teaching. 
Books and studies above the reach of the understand- 
ing not only lead it forward slowly, but they fasten on 
it a habit which is rarely subsequently laid aside, and 
which, if not, proves fatal to its vigor, and to any high 
grade of attainments. That mental indolence or lan- 
guor, that habit of slurring over difficult propositions, 
is alluded to, which deters the mind from following 
and seizing upon the higher steps of ratiocination — 
which makes the man a careless listener, an unweigh- 
ing reader, and an unsound thinker. 

The ignorant teacher may goad forward the child 
to attempt studies beyond its comprehension ; but for- 
tunately, in relation to the library, no such coercion is 
often attempted. Nature, if left to herself, exercises a 
conservative agency ; she spurns at such absurdities. 
It may be assumed as an undeniable general proposi- 
tion that, if books are above the comprehension of 
those in whose hands they are placed, they will not 
be read ; and, accordingly, the mass of books in the 
school libraries are not read by children. An ex- 
17 



194 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

tended and faithful scrutiny has established the point 
conclusively, in regard to the county under my jurisdic- 
tion, that the average class of books in the libraries — 
for example, the series of the Messrs. Harper — are not 
generally, or to any considerable extent, read by youth 
between the ages of seven and fourteen years. Of 
course, the children here referred to are those who 
are receiving their education in our common schools. 
And if the boy or girl has reached an age when, as is 
usually the case among our laboring population, their 
attention begins to be fixed upon, and their time during 
a considerable portion of the year occupied in, the 
avocations of their parents, — to repeat a former ques- 
tion, — what chance is there that they will contract the 
habit of reading afterwards ? or how materially is that 
chance diminished ? To resort to a trite simile, it 
may be said that we have given to our people a ladder 
to moral and intellectual elevation; but we have placed 
no lower " rounds " in it — none within reach of the 
child. And while the mental stature is acquiring size 
and strength to reach higher ones, a distaste is ac- 
quired — or, what results in the same thing, no taste is 
acquired for the ascent. 

At the risk of pursuing this question beyond the 
limits properly assignable to it, the important interests 
involved in its decision would seem to demand that an 
objection against these juvenile departments in our 
libraries, or rather a proposed substitute for them, 
shall be briefly examined. It has been contended that 
a sufficient supply of this class of books will be found 
in the Sunday school and nursery. In relation to the 
first, its books are too limited in their range of topics, 
too few in number, and too inaccessible to the mass of 
population, and oftentimes too objectionable to those 
entertaining different religious faiths, to ever supply 
the place of a necessary department in the common 
school libraries. Besides, is it becoming that the chil- 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 195 

dren of the republic shall depend upon the charity of 
religious denominations for that mental food which 
they are as justly entitled to receive at the hands of 
the government as are their parents ? In relation to 
the " nursery," could we have sufficient surety that 
the parent would make the necessary purchases of 
books, it would be contrary to the dictates of wise 
policy, as well as to an established feature in the com- 
mon school library system, to surrender up their selec- 
tion exclusively to the tastes or caprices of every 
individual parent. But whatever may be true of 
cities, — though the comparison would probably result 
little in their favor, — a school officer whom official 
duties has carried much among the people of the 
country — into their houses — and this too under cir- 
cumstances well calculated to ascertain the fact — can- 
not fail to have observed that no such class of books is 
to be found among the mass of our population. Prob- 
ably not one householder in five, throughout the state, 
possesses a collection, or even a single volume, of well- 
selected juvenile books ! 

The foregoing facts and conclusions are presented 
as the results of no hasty observations or reflections. 
The inquiries which led to them were suggested by 
the universal prevalence of a known and acknowl- 
edged evil. They have been long and zealously 
prosecuted, and the effect carefully noted, in districts 
where properly-selected juvenile books have been in- 
troduced into the libraries. In presenting my conclu- 
sions, I cannot, in justice to the responsible trust com- 
mitted to me, and in justice to what I believe to be 
momentous social interests, omit to respectfully recom- 
mend that all restrictions heretofore placed on the 
introduction of this class of books into the school 
libraries, be removed ; and that the purchase of a 
judicious series of juvenile books, of a class equal to 
" Parley's Magazine " or the " Rollo Books " be rec- 



196 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

cmmended to every school district, by the Head of 
Department.* 

* The following is an extract from the last annual report of 
the State Superintendent, in reference to this branch of the 
tubject : — 

" There is reason to apprehend that the officers charged 
with the duty of selecting books for these libraries have too 
generally failed to appreciate the importance of a suitable pro- 
vision for the intellectual and moral wants of the children of 
the district. Much misapprehension has existed on this sub- 
ject, in consequence of the general prohibition, contained in 
the instructions heretofore communicated from this Depart- 
ment, against the introduction into the school libraries of 
books of * a merely juvenile character.' The true principles 
upon which the selections for these institutions should be 
made, may be clearly inferred, as well from the original design 
of the appropriation, as from the contemporaneous exposition 
of the superintendent, under whose immediate auspices it was 
first carried into effect. The distribution of the fund pro- 
vided for this purpose was directed, by the act under which it 
was supplied, to be made ' in like manner and upon the like 
condition as the school moneys are now or shall hereafter be 
distributed, except that the trustees of the several districts 
shall appropriate the sum received to the purchase of a dis- 
trict library.' The amount of library money, therefore, under 
this provision, to which each district became entitled, was in 
proportion to the number of children between the ages of five 
and sixteen, residing therein, compared with the aggregate 
number in all the districts, and not in proportion to the adult 
population merely, or the whole population combined. The 
primary object of the institution of district libraries was de- 
clared, in the circular of General Dix, accompanying the pub- 
lication of the act of 1838, to be ' to disseminate works suited 
to the intellectual improvement of the great body of the peo- 
ple, rather than to throw into school districts, for the use of the 
young, boohs of a merely juvenile character $ and that, by col- 
lecting a large amount of useful information where it will be 
easily accessible, the influence of these establishments can 
hardlv fail to be in the highest degree salutary to those icho 
have finished their ci.vimojt school education, as veil as to thote 
who have. not. The object in view will probably be best an- 
sicerrd by having boohs suitable for all ages above ten or twelve 
years, though the proportion for those of mature age 'night to be 
by far the. greatest.' When it is considered that tne founda- 
tions of education are laid during the peril d of youth, and 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 197 

9. Moral Tendencies of Books. 

It would be an insult to the virtuous sense of the 
community, to suppose that it would be necessary to 
offer a caution, and more especially an argument, to 
any portion of our population, against the selection 
of books to be read by themselves, or placed in the 
hands of their children, of a known and openly recog- 
nized immoral character. Few such instances of 
depravity are to be found even among individuals; 
and they never form a majority among a population, 
the aggregate of which, if not polished, is never de- 
bused. But vice and immorality often lurk under 
specious coverings. And, unfortunately, their poison 
often comes associated with the most splendid efforts 

that the taste for reading and study is, with rare exceptions, 
formed and matured at this period, if at all, the importance of 
furnishing an adequate supply of books, adapted to the com- 
prehension of the immature but expanding intellect, suited to 
its various stages of mental growth, and calculated to lead it 
onward by a gradual and agreeable transition, from one field 
of intellectual and moral culture to another, cannot fail to be 
appreciated. And even if the intellectual wants of many of 
the inhabitants of the districts, of more mature age, are duly 
considered, it admits of little doubt that a due proportion of 
works of a more familiar and elementary character than are 
the mass of those generally selected, would have a tendency 
not only to promote, but often to create, that taste for mental 
pursuits which leads, by a rapid and sure progression, to a 
more extended acquaintance with the broad domains of 
knowledge. Those whose circumstances and pursuits in life 
hive hitherto precluded any systematic investigation of lit- 
erary subjects, and who, if they possessed the desire, were 
debarred the means of intellectual improvement now brought 
within their reach, can scarcely be expected to pass at once 
to that high appreciation of useful knowledge, which the 
perusal of elaborate treatises on any of the numerous branches 
of science or metaphysics requires ; and the fact brought to 
view by the annual reports of the county superintendents, 
that by far the greater proportion of the inhabitants of the 
several districts neglect to avail themselves of the privileges 



198 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

of human genius. As a literary man, I would as soon 
banish bread from my table as Shakspeare from my 
library ; yet I hesitate not to say there are scenes and 
passages in the writings of the great dramatist, which, 
though strictly in keeping with the tastes of his times, 
should preclude their indiscriminate circulation among 
children, and those whose tastes and understandings 
are yet crude and uncultivated. Editions of many of 
the early English poets — of nearly all those of the era 
of Dryden and Pope, including both of those peerless 
geniuses — and of a moiety of the moderns, would 
require expurgation before they could be properly 
placed on the shelves of a school library. In the 
department of fiction, the humor of Smollet, and the 
sparkling genius of Fielding and Le Sage, cannot 
atone for the presence of a similar taint-spot. Lat- 

of the library, indicates too general a failure to supply these 
institutions with the requisite proportion of elementary books. 
u In the selection of books for the district libraries, suitable 
provisions should be made for every gradation of intellectual 
advancement ; from that of a child, whose insatiable curiosity 
eagerly prompts to a more intimate acquaintance with the 
world of matter and of mind, to that of the most finished 
scholar, who is prepared to augment his stock of knowledge 
by every means which may be brought within his reach. 
The prevalence of an enlightened appreciation of the require- 
ments of our people in this respect, has already secured the 
application of the highest grade of mental and moral excel- 
lence to the elementary departments of literature ; and works 
adapted to the comprehension of the most immature intellect, 
and at the same time capable of conveying the most valuable 
information to more advanced minds, have been provided, 
wholly free, on the one hand, from that puerility which is fit 
only for the nursery, and, on the other, from those generaliza- 
tions and assumptions which are adapted only to advanced 
stages of mental progress. A more liberal infusion of this 
class of publications, sanctioned by the approbation of the 
most experienced friends of education, into our district 
libraries, would, it is confidently believed, remove many of 
those obstacles to their general utility, which otherwise are 
liable to be perpetuated from generation to generation." 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 199 

terly, the tide of demoralizing fictions, both in Eng- 
land and France, has swelled into a flood. Most of 
these lack even the gloss of genius ; but there are un- 
fortunate exceptions. The skepticism that glares up 
amid the lurid flames of Godwin, and some kindred 
writers, is not so dangerous as the bespangled pic- 
tures and sophisms of one who can at times write 
with as pure and lofty a pen as the author of Pelham. 
The last-named book one would think was written by 
a baronet, with an express purpose to surround puppy- 
ism and vice with the prestiges of his rank— to give 
them currency and respect, by stamping them with 
the impress of aristocracy! 

History and the higher walks of biography have 
rarely stooped to offend in these particulars. But in 
the vulgar compilations of the latter, in the marvellous 
and criminal department, we find a fruitful harvest of 
the bad. By what, at first view, would seem an un- 
fortunate tendency of at least the uninstructed mind, 
vice rarely acquires repulsiveness from closer inspec- 
tion and continued contemplation. Even its ultimate 
retribution inspires sympathy oftener than it excites 
awe. The executed criminal is always a hero or a 
martyr with a portion of the spectators of his exit ; 
and it was a sound philosophy which dictated, in our 
statute-book, that what would seem to be the most 
instructive and warning event, in the whole career of 
the felon, should be hidden from the public eye. 
Doubly important were it, then, were it practicable, to 
hide on paper, as well as in real life, the oftentimes 
sanguinary and disgusting details of atrocity which 
precede and give occasion for the closing scene. The 
increased danger of these publications, when, as is 
often the case, vice is painted in lofty and romantic 
colors, need not be insisted on. But whatever views 
may be taken by authors who have thus misapplied 
their powers, the tendency of ihis entire class of publi- 



200 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

cations is to pervert and blunt the moral sensibilities, 
to degrade and brutalize the taste. 

If, to give identity and distinctness to the classes of 
works deemed objectionable for the purpose under 
consideration, those of individual writers of high lit- 
erary rank have been specified, no one should claim 
that genius is entitled to any exemption from animad- 
version, when it sins against the severest code of 
morals ; and its most captivating or sublime displays 
should not excuse the presence, or even a suspicion, of 
immoral tendencies. If there are those who are so 
inconsiderate as to believe that every work which may 
be safe and profitable to a matured and cultivated un- 
derstanding must therefore be so to childhood and par- 
tial cultivation, and who are prepared to characterize 
the proscription of the works designated, and those of 
the same class, from the school libraries, as the fruits 
of a Gothic taste or an overstrained morality, it should 
not, nevertheless, deter the school officer from faithfully 
discharging his duty. The responsibility must be met, 
and I have preferred to meet it here, to an attempt to 
take shelter under any vague generalities. We should 
read the monitory tale of the past but poorly, did we 
fail to learn in it the important lesson, that moral civ- 
ilization must always advance hand in hand with intel- 
lectual civilization, to insure the advantageous fruits 
or the perpetuity of either. And we can throw aside 
the self-blackened author with the less regret, as in 
every age of English — European literature — and in 
every department of it, there have not been wanting 
pure and truthful spirits, who have welled forth waters 
as rich and sparkling, and unmired with any gross com- 
mixture — who have written nothing which " dying they 
could wish to blot." 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 201 



10. Sectarian Books. 

The common sense of every man would teach him 
that the school libraries do not furnish an appropriate 
field for religious controversies, and particularly for 
those vehement attacks which heated sectaries some- 
times conceive it their right or their duty to make 
on other religious bodies or systems. The common 
school and its library are neutral ground, on which 
those professing different and antagonist creeds can 
meet together in peace ; and this neutrality must be 
preserved, if we would preserve the utility of these 
educational institutions. The state superintendent has 
declared [Spencer, Vol. School Laws, 1841, p. 177] 
that works " of a sectarian character, or of hostility to 
the Christian religion, should on no account be admit- 
ted " into the libraries. But beyond this general 
declaration, no criteria or tests have been set forth, 
by which the people of districts, or those purchasing 
for them, can decide, with any great degree of cer- 
tainty, what works, touching at all on religious topics, 
shall or shall not come within the prohibitory rule. It 
might seem that any more particular description or 
definition could give no additional clearness to the two 
simple propositions contained in the dictum of the su- 
perintendent ; and perhaps such would be the case, if 
every one should bring to their consideration a catho- 
lic spirit and an unbiased judgment — a disposition to 
discover their true intent, rather than to bend and ren- 
der them subservient to previously conceived views. 
That they, or rather the first of them, has been often 
misinterpreted, one familiar with the libraries cannot 
but know. In some instances, religious denominations 
have supposed that, in establishing an immunity from 
attack for themselves and a few affiliated sects, they 
have exhausted all the charity embodied or contem- 



202 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

plated in the principle. Others, with nicer scrupu- 
lousness, have felt themselves called upon to reject all 
works in which the religious biases of the author are 
made even incidentally to appear. 

In view of these facts, it would seem incumbent on 
the competent tribunal to establish further and more 
definite criteria for deciding what works shall be in- 
cluded under the head of "sectarian" ones, and to 
take measures to enforce a more correct and uniform 
rule of construction. Notwithstanding the seeming 
delicacy with which the excited feelings and mutual 
suspicions of religious bodies have invested this task, 
it is one which the school officer is not at liberty to 
shrink from. To delay it longer is to involve the sub- 
ject in new difficulties — to encumber its final adjust- 
ment with the extirpation of errors which are daily 
accumulating, and which in the beginning might have 
been easily, to a great extent, prevented. Believing 
that an exploration of this debateable ground requires 
rather a frank directness of purpose, uninfluenced by 
fear or prejudice, than any shining abilities ; esteem- 
ing this, moreover, in common with every other topic 
connected with the common school libraries, directly 
assigned to my consideration by my official superior, I 
shall not hesitate to set forth the views in relation to it 
which have hitherto guided my official action, together 
with the reasons which led to their adoption. 

It may be well, in ascertaining the true interpreta- 
tion of the phrase "sectarian books," to first inquire 
the meaning of the word which defines or particular- 
izes the kind of books under consideration. The word 
"sectarian," in its adjective form, as the suffix would 
imply, signifies " pertaining to a sect." " Sect," not- 
withstanding a more limited etymological signification, 
is universally understood to mean, in religion as well 
as in philosophy, a body "united in tenets," and ap- 
plies, by universal practice, equally to all religious 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 203 

denominations. Sectarian books, then, are the books 
pertaining to a sect, as such — that is, devoted to the 
promulgation or defence of its peculiar tenets, — in the 
same way in which we speak of Trinitarian books or 
authors, when we mean books or authors sustaining 
the doctrine of the Trinity. Whether from the fact 
that the defence of one class of tenets implies a con- 
tradiction of or attack on another class, or that such 
attacks usually emanate from antagonist sects, a work 
assailing the religious views of any sect or church is, 
by common consent, ranked under the head " secta- 
rian, 1 ' as much as one designed to promulgate its 
views. 

One point remains to be settled. What bodies shall 
be recognized as " religious " denominations or sects ? 
We sometimes use the word religion as synonymous 
with personal piety, or what we esteem the true system 
of faith and worship. Under either of these definitions, 
the word would find no uniformity of interpretation, 
and a door would be left open to the most flagrant 
abuses. It would virtually authorize the dominant 
sect to pronounce itself a "religious 11 sect, and de- 
prive all others of the rights or immunities which they 
are equally entitled to in the same character. Re- 
ligion, in the extended signification of the word, im- 
plies any system of faith and worship. There may be 
true and false religions. The doctrines of Trinitarian- 
ism and Unitarianism, being exactly opposite to each 
other, must, one or the other, be untrue, — yet both are 
equally systems of religion. The believers in both 
can claim, with equal propriety, to be " religious 
sects. 11 It is not necessary, here, to go beyond the 
pale of civilization to inquire in relation to the religious 
systems of heathen nations. We have neither Pagans 
nor Mahometans among us. But every body of men 
among us, acknowledging the existence of a God, and 
any system of faith and worship in and towards him, 



204 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

must, in the eye of any law or official regulation, 
come equally under the denomination of a religious 
sect. We come, then, to the first general rule in re- 
lation to the school libraries, deducible from the above 
positions : — 

1. No works written professedly to uphold or attack 
any sect or creed in our country, claiming to be a re- 
ligious one, shall be tolerated in the school libraries. 

The question now arises, how far this rule of exclu- 
sion shall apply to an extensive class of literary works, 
evidently not written with a sectarian object, but which 
incidentally manifest the religious preferences or an- 
tipathies of their writers. This class embraces many 
of the standard productions of our language. There 
are, indeed, few books written which do not contain 
such disclosures. There is, probably, not a historian 
of England who does not betray an evident leaning 
against the Protestants or Catholics. Clarendon and 
Hume are not exceptions to this remark. In biogra- 
phy, these predilections are displayed almost as a mat- 
ter of course, in alluding to the religious tenets of their 
subjects. In Pope's Essay on Man, notwithstanding 
the volumes once written to disprove it, we feel as- 
sured that the author leans towards the skepticism of 
St. John, (the celebrated Viscount Bolingbroke,) whom 
he addresses in the first line of that much-read poem. 
Other productions as clearly evince the sway subse- 
quently acquired over his religious views by that giant 
defender of Christianity, Bishop Warburton. Gibbon, 
throughout his magnificent History of the Decline and 
Fall of the Roman Empire, clearly exhibits the earlier 
and worse bias which has been alluded to in Pope. 
The whole tenor of Milton's Paradise Lost militates 
against the doctrine of Universalism. These instances 
might be indefinitely multiplied, and from among the 
choicest productions of our language. To exclude 
them from the school libraries would be to perpetrate 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 205 

a great evil to escape a smaller one ; for surely, if 
selected indiscriminately in relation to their religions 
biases, and not allowed to assume any exclusive re- 
ligious hue, he who would take umbrage at their intro- 
duction would exhibit a puerile sensibility, or rather 
irritability. 

It may be said that in one, at least, of the instances 
cited, the works are not merely " sectarian," but actu- 
ally of "hostility to the Christian religion," a class di- 
rectly prohibited by the superintendent. But if the 
positions heretofore assumed are correct, works attack- 
ing other religions than the Christian — for example, 
those of the Jew, and that class of Unitarians who ut- 
terly deny the divine character of Christ — are equally 
excluded. This prohibition of the superintendent, then, 
was really embraced in his preceding one against 
"sectarian" works. Although it behoves us to be 
exceedingly cautious in tolerating any work even in- 
directly impugning the theory of our holy religion, and 
although some more strictness in enforcing the rule of 
exclusion in relation to such may be proper, it is in 
vain to say that it shall be made imperative in every 
possible instance coming within its letter. We must 
bear in mind, if we attempt to be tenacious to this ex- 
tent, that a work containing one improper thought or 
unjust sentiment, — any thing, in short, deviating from 
entire holiness, — is actually M of hostility to the Chris- 
tian religion." What literary production would escape 
ostracism on the application of such a test ? While we 
would unhesitatingly condemn and reject portions of 
the writings of the Shaftesburys, of Bolingbroke, of 
Godwin, of Shelley, of Wolstonecraft, of Paine, of 
Lessing, of Voltaire, and others of the same class, 
there are those which, though they incidentally betray 
doctrines somewhat at variance with the theory of 
Christianity, it is evidently expedient to tolerate. And 
should the young read these books, we are always at 



206 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

liberty to point out their errors — to administer the an- 
tidote. The second general rule, then, is, — 

2. Standard ivorks on other topics shall not be ex* 
eluded because they incidentally and indirectly Z>e- 
tray the religious opinions of their authors. 

There is a third class of literary productions which 
might, perhaps, be generally included under one or the 
other of the above heads, but which, to avoid ambi- 
guity, will be separately considered. The distinctions 
drawn in relation to the two preceding rules are be- 
lieved to be sufficiently clear and obvious to avoid, 
among intelligent persons, any necessity or great dan- 
ger of error in giving them their true application. If 
any portion of the subject must be left involved in 
doubt or obscurity, let us confine this shadowy region 
to the least possible limits. The class of books now 
in view are those which, though ostensibly written on 
other topics, not only incidentally betray religious 
biases, but so far digress from the subject which they 
purport to treat, as to abound in direct defences of the 
religious views of their authors, and attacks on those 
of other persons ; and those, whatever their theme, 
however dispassionately they may seem to be written, 
however free they may be from direct and open forms 
of crimination, which, nevertheless, hold up any re- 
ligious body to contempt or execration, by singling out 
or bringing together only the darker parts of their his- 
tory and character. It may be said that any attempt 
to separately classify such from those treated under 
the second rule is useless — that the point would al- 
ways, practically, be settled by the caprices or re- 
ligious views of the buyer. There is certainly such 
danger, but it is believed that the line of demarcation 
can be traced with sufficient distinctness to guide those 
who add to respectable intelligence an honest intent to 
discover and observe it. Direct illustration will, per- 
haps, be the readiest method to throw light on the sub- 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 207 

ject ; and, to meet the point explicitly and without 
reserve, a set of historical facts will be alluded to, the 
discussion of which is calculated, perhaps, above that 
of any others, to arouse the feelings and prejudices of 
two great divisions of the Christian world, and which 
have really, in a great majority of instances, formed 
the subjects of the works whose adoption or exclusion 
from the school libraries has been most frequently a 
matter of contest. 

Every English historian must speak of the martyrs 
who suffered during the reign of Mary : he has a per- 
fect right to express sympathy for the sufferer, indig- 
nation against the tyrannical monarch ; the intelligent 
Roman Catholic now, as then,* will do no less ; and 
this alone would in no point of view bring such his- 
tory under the denomination of a " sectarian " one. 
But Fox's Book of Martyrs, constantly pointing to, and 
commenting on, the enormities of one religious body, 
with its pictorial embellishments of Protestants suffering 
the most horrible species of torture and martyrdom, 
would as clearly, whether the narrations contained in 
it are, in point of fact, true or false, come under the 
exclusory rule. No Protestant, assuredly, would claim 
that a parallel work, giving a history of the Catholic, 
and even opposite sects of Protestant martyrs, embow- 
eled, beheaded, or burned, by the commands of the 
more able and politic, but little less sanguinary sister 
of the M bloody Mary," and by other Protestant princes 
and authorities, — particularly if illustrated with pic- 
tures as unnecessary to establish or explain facts as 
they are revolting to good taste, — no Protestant would 
claim that such a book would be a safe or suitable one 
to be placed in the hands of his children. He would 
fear, and justly, that enormities characteristic rather 

* The pope's legate, in England, remonstrated against the 
severities practised by Mary. 



208 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

of the spirit of a fierce and bloody age, than of any 
particular religious sect, might be mistaken by the im- 
mature mind for the legitimate and necessary fruits of 
a particular class of tenets, — the tenets believed by 
himself to be the true ones, — and that it might thus 
implant prejudices which it would be impossible to 
subsequently eradicate. 

Let us adduce another illustration, which will, per- 
haps, bring this subject more nearly home to the ma- 
jority of us, in some passages from the history of our 
Puritan forefathers. The noble Puritan — free as the 
eagle of his adopted land — brave as a lion in battle ; 
who had trampled on the feudal chivalry of England 
at Marston Moor and Naseby, and now, to assert his 
liberty of conscience, his "freedom to worship God," 
braving the dangers of unexplored and unhospitable 
climes — now, with heroic fortitude, shaking the " depths 
of the forest's gloom " with his " hymns of lofty cheer; " 
and now, when forced to unsheath the straight old 
"Roundhead" sword, tracking the wily savage to his 
lair, through wintry forests and nearly impassable mo- 
rasses, with a nerve more iron than the Spartan's, — the 
stout-hearted Standish, the apostolic Bradford, the sub- 
tle and intellectual Mather, the sagacious Winthrop, — 
all this forms a picture which the student of history 
will ever admire, and of which the American may 
justly be proud. But let us reverse it. Let us view 
the Puritan who fled from the persecution of the weak 
and tyrannical Stuarts, himself turned persecutor, 
driving into exile the equally protestant Baptist, put- 
ting to death the meek and uninterfering Quaker, be- 
heading captive chiefs in cold blood, selling his Indian 
prisoners into slavery, and, lastly, sinking — sinking so 
ineffably, not only below the standard of decent hu- 
manity, but of decent intelligence, as to hang, drown," 
and burn miserable old women, on the paltry plea of 
witchcraft : view this side of the picture, and we learn 



COMMOK SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 209 

that intelligence, virtue, and even sincere piety, are 
not sufficient safeguards against the errors which grow 
out of the spirit of the age, which are incidental to the 
different epochs of a developing civilization. Shall the 
historian, who faithfully portrays the errors of our 
forefathers, he excluded from the school library ? Cer- 
tainly not. Apart from maintaining the truth, we want 
the benefit of their negative as well as their better ex- 
amples. But let us suppose a work written expressly 
to point out every enormity chargeable to the Puritans ; 
hunting up, and, as it were, recoloring, every forgotten 
detail of their errors ; in short, exhibiting the subject 
only on one side ; what would be our judgment of such 
a production ? Would we not spurn it indignantly 
from the school library ? As assuredly, yes. And 
if some overheated and visionary religionist should 
gravely describe all these enormities as the necessary 
fruits of the Protestantism of the Puritans, would not 
ridicule and contempt take the place, in our minds, of 
any soberer condemnation ? 

The high-minded and magnanimous Protestant will 
feel that 

"The quality of mercy is not strained ; 
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven/' 

on Catholic as well as Protestant ; that it would be in- 
tolerant, as it would be unjust and unmanly, to ask any 
immunity from laws or official regulations for himself, 
which he would not as freely concede to Catholic, or 
even heretic — to any, in short, of the great brother- 
hood of civilized man. This brings us to the third 
rule : — 

3. Works, avowedly on other topics, which abound in 
direct and unreserved attacks on, or defences of, the 
character of any religious sect ; or those which hold 
up any religious body to contempt or execration, by 
singling out or bringing together only the darker parts 
18 



210 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

of its history or character, shall be excluded from the 
school libraries. 

Is it said that, under the above rules, heresy and 
error are put on the same footing with true religion ; 
that Protestant and Catholic, orthodox and unorthodox, 
Univcrsalist, Unitarian, Jew, and even Mormon, derive 
the same immunity ? The fact is conceded ; and it is 
averred that each is equally entitled to it, in a govern- 
ment whose very constitution avows the principle of a 
full and indiscriminate religious toleration. 

He who thinks it hard that he shall not be allowed 
to combat, through the medium of the school libraries, 
beliefs, the sin and error of which are as clear to him 
as is the light in heaven, will bear in mind that the 
library, at least, leaves him and his religious beliefs in 
as good a condition as it found him. If it will not 
propagate his tenets, it will leave them unattacked. If 
he is not allowed to use other men's money to pur- 
chase books to assault their religious faiths, he is not 
estopped from expending his own as he sees fit, in his 
private or in his Sunday school library ; nor is he de- 
barred from placing these books in the hands of all 
who are willing to receive them. His power of mor- 
ally persuading his fellow-men is left unimpaired ; nor 
will he, if he has any confidence in the recuperative 
energies of truth, if he believes his God will ultimately 
give victory to truth, ask more. In asking, or conde- 
scending to accept, the support of an earthly govern- 
ment, he admits the weakness of his cause, the feeble- 
ness of his faith. He leans on another arm than that 
which every page in the Bible declares all-sufficient. 
In what age of the world has any church entered into 
meretricious connexion with temporal governments, 
and escaped unsullied from the contact ? Any approx- 
imation to such connexion, even in the minutest par- 
ticular; any exclusive right or immunity given to one 
religious sect or another in the school library or else- 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 21 1 

where, is not only anti-religious, but anti-republican* 
As men, we have the right to adopt religious creeds^ 
and to attempt to influence others to adopt them ; but 
as Americans, as legislators or officials dispensing 
privileges or immunities among American citizens, we 
have no right to know one religion from another. The 
persecuted and wandering Israelite comes here, and 
he finds no bar in our naturalization laws. The mem* 
bers of the Roman, Greek, or English church equally- 
become citizens. Those adopting every hue of re- 
ligious faith, every phase of heresy, take their place 
equally under the banner of the republic, and no ec- 
clesiastical power can snatch even " the least of these " 
from under its glorious folds. Not an hour of confine- 
ment, not the amercement of a farthing, not the dep- 
rivation of a right or liberty weighing " in the esti- 
mation of a hair " can any such power impose on any 
American citizen, without his own full and entire ac- 
quiescence. 

I have been more ample, perhaps too ample, in at- 
tempting to explain and illustrate this subject, in all its 
variety of attitudes, because I have reason to believe 
that far more misapprehension exists in relation to it 
than on any other connected with the selection of 
books for the common school libraries. I have had 
occasion to require the removal of more sectarian 
books than those of all the other offending classes put 
together. Narrow and unexpanded views have too 
generally prevailed. Among men entertaining every 
variety of erroneous views on this subject, I have not 
failed to find those whose intelligence or whose chari- 
ty was so microscopic in its dimensions, that they have 
seriously defended works from the charge of sectarian- 
ism, on the ground that in assaulting a sect on what 
they considered the wrong side of the dividing line 
between Protestantism and Catholicism, orthodoxy or 
heresy, they really attack no religious body or sect ! 



212 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTUTt'E. 

that such bodies or sects are entitled neither to the 
name nor the immunities of M religious " ones ! 

11. Political Books. 

The propriety of utterly excluding every work of 
the class commonly known as political from the school 
libraries is so obvious, that it requires neither argument 
nor comment. The rules for determining what works, 
in which the claims of particular political parties in 
the United States are at all alluded to, shall be admit- 
ted, should, it is submitted, be identical with those de- 
tailed under the preceding head, in relation to theo- 
logical works. Books written avowedly to attack or 
defend political parties should be excluded ; histories, 
biographies, or other works incidentally betraying the 
political predilections of the writer, may be admitted ; 
but works which, though even ostensibly on other top- 
ics, contain repeated and direct attacks on, or defences 
of, any political party, should be excluded. 

Under the first head it is unnecessary to adduce any 
examples. The arrogation of exclusive patriotism and 
sagacity in managing the affairs of state, the unsparing 
imputations on the motives and acts of opponents, so 
common to partisan publications in all countries, are 
too characteristic to be mistaken. This class, apart 
from our hebdomadal publications, which no one would 
think of placing in a school library, is an exceedingly 
small one in American literature. We have few pub- 
lications, put in the form of books, bound, and sold 
from the shelves of the bookseller, which are devoted 
directly and avowedly to the discussion of partisan 
politics. 

Under the second head ranks a large portion of our 
American histories and biographies. Among authors 
of reputation, among works written with the least de- 
sign or hope of securing a place in our standard litera- 
ture, but few exceptions to this remark can be pointed 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES* 213 

out This branch of our literature, be it said to our 
honor, has imbibed far less of a partisan coloring than 
in England. 

In the third class are some lives of eminent politi- 
cians, narratives claiming the names of histories, de* 
signed to advocate the claims of politicians, and col- 
lections of legislative speeches, which advocate the 
measures of particular parties. The class of works 
more specially alluded to here, are those which are 
thrown into circulation in times of high political ex- 
citement, and usually with the design of influencing 
some approaching political struggle. 

It should be understood that, in every biography or 
history alluding to the acts of eminent men, it is the 
license of the author to give the character of his sub- 
ject the benefit of the best construction, in politics and 
other matters, which the circumstances and events 
having a bearing on the case admit of — if, in so doing, 
those circumstances and events are not misrepre- 
sented, or assaults on opponents indulged in. The 
right of self-defence is as sacred in regard to the char- 
acter as the person ; and the only restriction on a just 
exercise of this right is to be found in the ancient law 
maxim, which commands us " so to use our own as 
not to injure another's," It is not meant here that a 
great and good man's defence shall not be rendered 
complete, merely to shelter any low political tool or 
adventurer ; but, to resort to direct examples, it would 
be in as bad taste and as improper, as it would be 
unnecessary, to attempt to upbuild the fame of Jeffer- 
son at the expense of that of Hamilton, or that of 
Madison at the expense of that of Jay, In political 
measures were they divided ; in patriotism and integ- 
rity, between them there was no division. The mas- 
sive and logical intellect of Hamilton, the more ex- 
pansive and advanced philosophy of Jefferson, arrived 
al different results, led to diiferent political measures; 



214 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

but that man is un-American, who, because he coin- 
cides with the one, would disentomb and expose to 
rude scorn the ashes of the other. 

Works discussing what may be legitimately termed 
politics, — that is, the science of government, — and 
which do not assume a partisan character, are properly 
admissible into the libraries. The Federalist, Debates in 
the Virginia and New York Conventions, the disquisi- 
tions contained in M. De Tocqueville's work on this 
country, etc., come under this head. 

I am happy to say that I have never found a work 
in the school libraries of a partisan political character. 

12. Biography and History. 

Biography and history may be properly viewed 
under the same head. They must ever form a 
numerous and important department in every well- 
selected general library. They are among the first 
books which should be placed in the hands of the 
young, to cultivate a taste for useful and substantial 
reading, as well as for the purposes of instruction. 
Both are charts laid down by experience, pointing out 
the safe courses, as well as the rocks and shallows, of 
human life. Though they are commonly, to a consid- 
erable extent, interwoven with each other, each has a 
separate and appropriate sphere. Biography teaches 
its great lesson to man, more particularly as the indi- 
vidual ; history addresses its exhortations and admoni- 
tions to him, as a being sustaining relations to society 
and to government. 

The first place has been assigned to biography, 
contrary to the usual custom of writing and speaking, 
not without design. In the natural order of things, 
we should assuredly learn the wisdom, the experience, 
which pertain to the career of the man, preparatory 
to, as the first step to, learning those which pertain to 
the career of the citizen. And, accordingly, by what 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 215 

would seem a wise instinct, biography is more attrac- 
tive to the young, and its teachings more readily un- 
derstood, than the higher and more complicated ones 
of history. 

It would be but a repetition of stale truisms to offer 
any arguments to prove the importance of either of 
these branches of reading. To disregard them would 
be an exhibition of wisdom on a par with that of the 
traveller who, called upon to thread his path amid 
pitfalls and precipices, under but a dim and uncertain 
light, should reject the proffers of the friendly guide 
whom long experience had rendered familiar with the 
dangers of the way. 

In procuring both of these classes of books, for 
the smaller school libraries, the considerations urged 
under a preceding head, in regard to " size," should 
not be lost sight of. And perhaps there is no depart- 
ment of literature that admits greater latitude of 
selection in this particular. We should equally steer 
clear of voluminous works and mere compends. If 
the Universal History of Rollin would be thought large, 
that of Tytler is entirely too brief and meagre. If 
Bancroft's United States is too elaborate, the smaller 
works of Hale, Winchester, and others of the same 
stamp, designed as class-books, would be insignificant. 
Gillies's or Mitford's Greece, Ferguson's Rome, and 
Gibbon's Decline and Fall, if erring on the one side, 
would be but illy replaced by the abridgments of 
Goldsmith. 

The class of histories most desirable for the reader 
who is constrained to economize his time, and perhaps 
for all, are those which may be termed Philosophies 
of History — those in which the principal facts, and 
the philosophy deducible from all the facts, are clearly, 
briefly, and nervously recorded. History has been 
often defined " philosophy teaching by experience." 
If this definition is a true one, what need have we of 



216 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

any more of the experience — in other words, the facts — 
than just sufficient to preserve our interest in the sub- 
ject, and to carry strong and earnest conviction to the 
mind, that the philosophy set forth is clearly deducible 
from that experience, or those facts ? A single prob- 
lem demonstrates a principle in mathematics, as well 
as a hundred. In history as in painting, a few bold, 
vigorous strokes of the pencil give more vivid and 
direct impressions of great events, and the actors in 
them, than that elaborate art which finishes every 
thing, to the most inconsiderable object in the back- 
ground — which exhibits as much care and skill in 
painting the shoe-ties, as the lineaments of the prin- 
cipal figures. 

It need scarcely be observed that both of these 
departments of literature, in the school libraries, 
should be particularly rich in American subjects. 

13. Works of Fiction. 

Strong prejudices exist among a portion, and that 
the best portion, of our citizens, against works of fic- 
tion, on account of the concededly evil tendencies of 
a portion of them, the frivolity of others, and that dan- 
gerous fascination — especially to the young mind — 
which invests this entire class of productions. It 
cannot be denied that their perusal too often begets a 
distaste for more substantial literature ; that their 
effect on the inexperienced and undisciplined mind 
is, to infuse into it romantic and exaggerated views, 
and to divorce it from the practical and real. The 
fancy of the novelist, like the machine horse of the 
Arabian tale, carries the rider to empyrean heights, 
and, amid the dazzling scenes spread out around and 
beneath him, the bewildered enthusiast, like Prince 
Firouz, sometimes finds himself unacquainted with the 
process by which his untiring courser can be com- 
pelled to descend again to earth. Surely it is not 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 217 

denied to us to cultivate the imagination — an attribute 
bestowed upon us for wise and most merciful pur- 
poses ; but this must not be done at the expense of 
the solider qualities of the mind. Its gorgeous struc- 
tures should not be built on, or out of, the ruins of 
sober judgment. 

Exaggeration, however, though a tendency, is not 
necessarily a property, of fiction. The substratum of 
every well-designed work of fiction is truth — truth to 
natural and moral laws. Novels may be, and fre- 
quently are, rich in not only geographical, scientific, 
and historical, but in moral and intellectual teachings. 
Byron, long afterwards, spoke of the intense interest 
excited in his mind, in relation to Venice and her 
scenery, by the vivid picturing of Mrs. Radclifie. 
With the author of Waverley, we do not merely read 
of, but we seem to gaze with our natural eyes on, the 
most striking scenes of every land and clime. With 
what admiring wonder will the forest landscapes of 
Cooper be studied, when the Salvator or the Titian 
features of their originals shall alike have been effaced 
by the axe and the plough, and when their dark abori- 
ginal groups shall find no longer a counterpart among 
the dwellers of earth ! 

In history too — in the philosophy of history — works 
of fiction frequently present the most striking delinea- 
tions. History sometimes degenerates into fiction; 
fiction often rises to the dignity of history. It may 
well be questioned whether some of the novels of 
Scott do not give as good a picture of the times which 
they portray, and a juster conception of the principal 
characters, than the same author's history of Napoleon. 
When the novel is faithful to the spirit of history, — 
when it utters the same philosophy, — wherein docs it 
fall short of the value of history ? We read not the 
latter merely to glean its naked facts. If we did, a 
19 



218 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

chronological table were equally valuable, and cer- 
tainly of far more rapid and convenient reference, 
than the pages of Livy, or Tacitus, or Hume. 

The dramatic accompaniments and the minute de- 
lineations of the novel admit of even more vivid 
representations of characters and events than can be 
reached by severer history. The novelist is re- 
strained by no cold laws of narration. He intro- 
duces his characters acting, breathing before us. 
Like the magician, he calls up the distant and the 
dead ; group after group pass before us in his magic 
glass ; and now the strained ear seems to catch the 
war-cry of crusading hosts, and now the fierce yell 
of the savages breaking forth from American forests. 

Fiction, too, may both teach and impress high moral 
lessons. The Savior of mankind taught in parables 
or allegories. He taught truth by fiction. Rasselas, 
the Vicar of Wakefield, the inimitable Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress, and every other truthful novel, has the same 
end. Rebecca preparing to leap from the dizzy 
turrets of Torquilstone, or surrounded by the fagots 
in the lists of Templestowe, teaches the lofty lesson 
as well as did the Roman Lucretia ; and on what 
page of history will republican man find a simpler 
and nobler model than in Arnold Biederman ? Shall 
we regard Cervantes in the light of the mere novelist, 
or the teacher, when, with one stroke of his mighty 
satire, in the guise of a romance, he clove down the 
chivalry of Spain at once and forever? 

The design of these remarks is, to show that all 
works of fiction are not to be judged by that standard 
of immorality, frivolity, or sickly sentimentality which 
characterizes the mass of them ; and that the admis- 
sion of a few of them into the school libraries, in cer- 
tain circumstances, and under judicious restrictions, is 
not improper. In the first place, they should only be 
admitted after the library is supplied, to an extent 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 219 

which may be reasonably deemed ample, with works 
of a more sound and indispensable character; second, 
however large the library, their number should be 
iimited ; and, finally, they should be selected with 
rigorous discrimination, and only when their character 
is well known. When admitted into the libraries, no 
discreet and reflecting parent will fail to take care that 
they form not the first, nor, at any time, the principal 
reading of their children. 

The number of novels and romances heretofore 
introduced into the libraries has not been large; but 
they usually have been of a secondary, or still lower, 
literary rank. The Scottish Chiefs, Thaddeus of War- 
saw, and the Children of the Abbey, represent the best 
class of them. I have found also George Barnwell, 
Eliza Wharton, and even the Three Spaniards. 1 need 
not say that their removal has been invariably required. 

14. Poetry. 

Poetry and fiction are cognate in many of their 
means and aims. Both, too, have invoked the loftiest 
and best impulses of our nature ; both have stooped to 
dabble their pinions in the mire of passion and sensu- 
ality. The influence of the former on mankind, in 
the early ages of the world, has been alluded to. We 
find it difficult to estimate it by any standard to be 
found in the popular susceptibilities of the present day. 
Our times are those of " calculators and economists." 
Reason has triumphed over imagination, and if she 
permits her to fly at all, it is with the clipped pinion 
of a bird imprisoned in an aviary. 

But Poetry, though shorn of much of her direct 
mastery over the imagination and the passions, and no 
longer commanding the implicit credence of man, has 
not lost the power to delight and instruct him. It is 
common for men of gross and arithmetical under- 
standings to ask what are its uses. It is common to 



220 BIENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

hear its introduction into the school libraries objected 
to, on the ground that it is frivolous, that it teaches 
nothing. The Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, on receiving 
a copy of the Orlando of Ariosto, asked the author 
" where he picked up all that trumpery." 

Like fiction, Poetry may be made, and is often made, 
the vehicle of the most important truths, the most fe- 
licitous moral and physical delineations, the highest 
and most effective appeals to our fallen nature. What 
glimpses has she given us of the quenchless energies 
of a human soul, for good or for evil, in Dante's inter- 
view with the shade of Farinata ; in Byron's dark por- 
traitures of Cain and Manfred ; in the chained-down, 
but unconquerable and all-defying man-god, the Pro- 
metheus of iEschylus and Shelley ! How gloriously 
has she fanned the fires of devotion, and shadowed 
forth man's moral destiny, in the pages of Milton and 
Young, of Cowper and Hemans ! Plow eloquently has 
she lent her powers to discourse of nature, in Virgil 
and Thomson ! How sweetly has she sung of the 
joys and sorrows of simple life, of lowly man, in 
poets in other respects as dissimilar as Burns and 
Wordsworth ! How nobly has she stood forth the pa- 
triot in the burning lyrics of Korner, Campbell, and 
our own Hopkinson ! She has appeared the historian 
in Plomer, Tasso, Camoens, and all the epic poets ; 
and she has become the politician with Butler and 
Trumbull. Some of the minor poets, like Darwin and 
Armstrong, have tamed her down to become a scien- 
tific lecturer ! In all ages she has occupied the chair 
of rhetoric, cultivating the literary tastes, and improv- 
ing the dialects of men. Apart from their other ef- 
fects, the influence of the writings of Dante, Ariosto, 
and Tasso, in Italy ; of Spenser, Shakspeare, and Mil- 
ton, in England ; of Malherbe, Corneille, and Racine, 
in France ; of Lessing, Schiller, and Gothe, in Ger- 
many, would, in this single particular, more than via- 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 221 

dicate the claims of poetry to a high rank among the 
valuable arts. 

To even the utilitarian, if an intellectual one, if he 
counts the time and efforts of the mind, as he would 
those pertaining to the body, Poetry has two matchless 
recommendations. She produces stronger impressions 
than prose, and she does it in fewer words. In her more 
impassioned flights, all other species of composition, 
even oratory itself, sinks cold and powerless, compared 
with the thoughts and images which are thrown off, 
as it were, molten and burning, from the soul of the 
poet. In compression, in intellectual density, in the 
power of expressing volumes in sentences, sentences 
in words, poetry is to prose what carbon in the dia- 
mond is to carbon in the coal. How often do we find 
this exemplified amidst the sombre austerity of Young; 
the cold glitter of Pope ; on every page of the " myr- 
iad-minded " Shakspeare ! And how suddenly, and 
with what little apparent effort, does poetry penetrate 
to the very fountain-heads of the emotions ! Like him 
who touches the electric conductor, we feel the shock 
instantaneous, invisible, and entirely beyond the power 
of any inviting or resisting volition. It runs like a 
fever-chill over the shivering nerves, gushes into un- 
controllable tears in the eye, flashes up, in the dullest 
soul, into a sudden and irrepressible yearning for the 
great and lofty ; and again and again is the same 
effect produced by a reperusal of the passage ; and 
yet, if we turn back and attempt to analyze critically 
the secret of its power, we find but a few simple words, 
which every schoolboy uses — grouped, too, apparently, 
with as little artifice or design as that same school- 
boy's prattle. They are like the enchanted towers in 
the "vale of St. John, 1 ' which, when approached more 
nearly, revert to shapeless masses of unwrought gran- 
ite. Read the Mason of Gothe ; the words are sim- 
ple and few, yet Saurin, ever " pointing to the open 



222 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

grave," is not half so eloquent. Who ever rose from 
the perusal of Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey, or Bry- 
ant's* Thanatopsis, without feeling that he had drunk 
in the moral of all human philosophy ? Milton's 
Comus, Gray's Elegy written in a Country Church- 
yard, the same author's wild and impassioned Bard, 
Burns's Cotter's Saturday Night, Kirke White's Ode 
to Genius, as well as innumerable detached passages 
which might be cited from all the higher poets, fur- 
nish examples, varying in intensity, of the same mys- 
tic power.f 

The introduction of poetry into the school libraries 
should be placed under similar regulations with the in- 
troduction of fiction. It should form but a subordinate 
department, and be selected with the same scrupulous 
care. I am happy to say, however, this caution is less 
necessary in relation to American poetry. Fortunate- 
ly, few of our American poets (or our other writers) 
have stooped to cater to depravity, to use the language 
and call up the associations of Cyprians. It is not 
necessary to inquire for expurgated editions of Bryant, 
Halleck, Dana, Sigourney, Percival, Willis, Gould, etc. 

* How deeply it is to be regretted that one who has few 
equals among his contemporaries, or throughout the world, 
should make no more elaborate efforts for his own and his 
country's literary fame ! 

i And among these chef d'ceuvres I hesitate not to name 
the " Camp-Meeting Hymn," commencing, " O Thou in whose 
presence," the authorship of which is unknown to me. Who- 
ever the author was, he was no stranger to the 

" ample pinions 

Which the Thubau eagle bear ; " 

indeed, every line reminds us of the sublime fire of Pindar. 
Although this religious lyric partakes rather of the character 
of the ancient hymns to the gods, where love assumed some- 
thing of a material and human form, yet he who has heard it 
uplifted by the voices of thousands, in the depths of an Amer- 
ican forest, will feel that its beauties have not been exag- 
gerated. 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 223 

There is now scarcely a volume of poetry of any 
description in the common school libraries of the 
county. 

15. Miscellaneous Books. 

It is not proposed, under this head, to discuss the 
boundless range of literature not included in preced- 
ing divisions. It were impracticable, within reasona- 
ble limits, and it is unnecessary. 

A well-selected library, for general use, should em- 
brace a wide variety of topics. Men's tastes differ 
almost as much as their persons. Probably every one 
has decided mental predispositions or biases, devel- 
oped or undeveloped ; and if these are properly ap- 
pealed to, the best and strongest qualities of the mind 
are called into action. Touch the wrong cord again 
and again, and we obtain no response. Defoe's Essay 
on Projects was the spear of Ithuriel to the undisclosed 
energies of Franklin. The creative genius of Shak- 
speare, the sublime majesty of Milton, even the vast 
and all-embracing philosophy of Bacon, might have 
failed to reach these. Malebranche had devoted 
himself to the cloister. An accidental opening of 
Des Cartes's Treatise on Man at once revealed, what 
perhaps was as little known to himself as to others, the 
germ of philosophy implanted in his mind. It is said 
that he dropped the book, sick and overcome with un- 
controllable agitation ! We have no right to aver that 
any work on the same topic, or any method of treat- 
ing it, would have produced the same effects. Male- 
branche was already a ripe and deeply-read scholar, 
and doubtless familiar with philosophic systems. The 
waters of the rivers of Damascus may be as healing 
and limpid as those of the Jordan ; but the latter can 
alone work the miracle. And it is well that it is so. 
It is well that mind has a natural channel through 



224 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

which to pour its energies, and that it seeks that chan- 
nel. A literature without individuality were like a 
landscape in the midst of a desert — one vast plain, 
stretching as far as the eye could reach in every di- 
rection, in dull and dreary uniformity and lifelessness. 
If there is one thing above all others, if we except 
genius, which should characterize a nation's literature, 
it is individuality. 

Intellects of humbler dimensions, those to whom it 
is not given "the thought-throned mind to please," are 
nevertheless wrought upon proportionally, expanded, 
and called forth in their best spheres of action, by con- 
sulting their natural and strongest biases. Their best 
treasures are disclosed, be they of clay or be they of 
brass. And by suiting a great variety of tastes, mul- 
titudes are induced to begin to read, who otherwise 
would not. He who begins to read rarely finds his 
appetite pall for intellectual food. The circle of his 
curiosity, his taste, and his mental yearnings widens 
as he advances. He begins by climbing the molehill 
of knowledge, embraced by his trivial curiosity ; he 
ends by surmounting Alpine heights. 

There is another consideration of much importance. 
Literature should not only be selected from various in- 
dividual sources, but, so far as practicable, from vari- 
ous national sources. Reading the literature of one 
nation exclusively, we become, as it were, a literary 
colony of that nation. Has this not been, does it not 
continue, too much our relation towards England ? 
Our tastes and prejudices have been all imbibed from 
her. We allow not other nations to speak for them- 
selves ; we take only English testimony in relation to 
them. Has England been just to our literature, to our 
institutions, our history ? What right have we to infer 
she will be more just to other nations ? What Amer- 
ican smattercr has not learned his English lesson 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 225 

that the Frenchman is gay, polite, shallow, and false- 
hearted ? — that the German is dull, superstitious, and 
mystified ? It is true that, of late, it has become fash- 
ionable for English critics to speak in high terms of 
the literature of Germany, and to yield a tardy and yet 
imperfect measure of justice to the literature of France ; 
but the impressions here spoken of are those which are 
derived from the great mass of English popular writers, 
her essayists until quite recently, — and yet a portion of 
them, — her dramatists, her novelists, and particularly 
her tale writers and newspaper critics. 

There is no space here to expose such shallow 
absurdities. Because Bohme, or Werner, or Novalis 
mystifies ; because Kant transcends the ordinary un- 
derstanding; because, peradventure, there is a deeper 
and more reverential awe, a stronger congeniality for 
the vast, for the dimness and indistinctness which hover 
round the confines of the sublime, in the great Ger- 
man (Teuton) mind, than characterizes other nations, 
is it a necessary sequence that all Germans write only 
in a mystic jargon ? The " gay and shallow " French- 
men now lead their English neighbors in perhaps 
nearly every department of science and philosophy ! 

But this is not the point. Our quest is not to find 
the greatest, and then to bow ourselves down at the 
footstool of that greatest. We wrong ourselves, deeply 
wrong ourselves, in becoming the copyists or imitators 
of any. We want a national literature — an American 
literature. W T e labor under disadvantages in this par- 
ticular. Pallas, when she sprang mature from the 
brain of Jove, could have brought none of those pecu- 
liarities acquired among the influences, the peculiar 
and moulding circumstances, of childhood. Our litera- 
ture has had no infancy ; it is an offset on the trunk 
of that of England ; and if we confine ourselves to 
English authors, English models, English habits of 



226 MENTAL AND WOKAL CULTURE. 

thought and methods of expression, our literature will 
always remain a mere offset. 

He who would "drink deep" of literature should go 
back to her ancient fountains ; and now that the bar- 
riers once interposed between them and the many, by 
a dead tongue, are broken down, there is no reason 
why all, possessing ordinary education, should not re- 
sort to them. It requires no higher training of the 
mind to understand the orations of Demosthenes than 
those of Pitt, or Fox, or Burke ; yet neither of these 
equalled the great Athenian, or can scarcely be said 
to have approached his oration " On the Crown." Fox 
sifted his subject with the skill and logical acumen of 
a giant debater ; Burke brought all the treasures of 
literature and genius, an imagination which " outshone 
the wealth of Ormus and of lnd," to adorn his ; but if 
we would have a picture of a subject on which the 
Greek orator had once spent his force, we must turn 
to Burke's own description of the ravaged and utterly 
desolate Carnatic, after the wasting transit of Hyder 
Ali ! The translated orations of Demosthenes, Cicero, 
and iEschines ; the poems of Homer, iEschylus, Eu- 
ripides, Sophocles, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid ; the his- 
tories of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Sallust, 
and Csesar, can now all be purchased for a few shil- 
lings ! True, they are translations, and it is very 
common to decry translations. But even in perusing 
the originals, the thoughts come home to all ordinary 
scholars in the dress of their native tongue ; and what 
ordinary scholar would claim that he could translate, 
even to his own ?nind, more accurately and forcibly 
than the able linguists — translators as celebrated, in 
some instances more celebrated, in literature, than their 
originals — who have given us the ancient writers in 
our own tongue ? How many scholars, of any stamp, 
would be likely to drink in the beauty of the original 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 227 

less diluted, than Milton, Dryden, Pope, Cowley, Ad- 
dison, Swift, and others little less renowned in the 
catalogue of translators ! I am far from recommend- 
ing that the Greek and Roman classics should be 
placed in all of our school libraries; but when those 
libraries grow large, when they arc called upon to ad- 
minister to the intellectual wants of well-read and cul- 
tivated men, the classics will always find an appropri- 
ate place in them. Among the mutations of literature, 
the affectations and mannerisms of schools and cliques, 
these will form perpetual landmarks, as, amid the shift- 
ing sands, the pyramids tower unwasting in the old 
Egyptian sky. 

Within the last few years there has been a great 
increase of popular expositions of moral, intellectual, 
and natural science. Science has laid aside the ped- 
antry and the technicalities of the schools, and gone 
forth beyond the walls of universities, to instruct the 
Gentiles of the world of learning. True, many of 
these expositions fail in carrying out their design 
properly ; some continue to soar too high ; some sink 
so low as to repel by their puerility. And there is 
another very common mistake among the writers or 
compilers of these works ; it is, to make them mere 
catalogues of facts, educible from, or explained by, the 
given science. With some such writers, Science as- 
sumes the charlatan air of a juggler displaying his 
mystic feats to gaping curiosity ; with others, she be- 
comes a writer of recipes, or a mere announcer of 
maxims. Science thus degrades herself to mere art. 
It is quite certain that we should never lose sight of 
the practical and useful ; but we in reality better con- 
sult an extended utility, by not only giving facts and 
teaching processes, but by clearly setting forth the 
principles to which all facts or maxims are referable. 
The true popular exposition of a science is that which 



228 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

explains its principles to the understanding of the com- 
mon mind, teaching it to educe or refer for itself all 
facts which it may seek, or which come within the 
range of its observation. In such a point of view, 
Science never degrades herself by becoming the hand- 
maid of man, his teacher and expounder in every art 
and handicraft, in every department of the realms of 
mind and matter. On the contrary, this was her des- 
tined vocation from the beginning. Science, or rather 
those laws which it developes, were created for man ; 
for him were laid down the rules which guide the 
changes of the seasons, seed-time and harvest ; for 
him every agent in nature performs its ceaseless func- 
tions ; for him were established those wise and harmo- 
nious regulations which govern his physical, moral, 
and intellectual being. To know these is to be wise ; 
to obey their behests is to be happy. Who can con- 
ceive of the grandeur of a civilization embracing such 
elements, diffusing this priceless knowledge through 
all the stratifications of society ? What were the 
cesthetical civilizations of antiquity, the partial and 
aristocratic civilizations of modern Europe, compared 
with this ? 

The three great divisions of science, above named, 
in their widest sense, would perhaps include the sub- 
jects of nearly all books. Without assuming that they 
have been any thing more than alluded to, it is believed 
that greater space cannot be properly devoted to them, 
under the circumstances in which they are here dis- 
cussed. 

16. Books for Poor-Houses and Jails. 

The inmates of poor-houses and jails are not ex- 
cluded, by any express provision of the law, from 
sharing in the benefits of the school libraries ; but, 
failing to acquire a legal residence in the districts 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 229 

where they remain, they are placed on the footing of 
other transient persons, and consequently are not 
allowed to draw books. 

The question arises, whether an exception should 
not be made, or an express provision added to existing 
regulations, to meet these cases. This question re- 
solves itself into one of expediency, in relation to the 
prisoner ; one of justice, as well as expediency, in re- 
lation to the pauper. 

The ordinary citizen, who floats about society with- 
out acquiring any fixed residence, does so by his own 
voluntary act. Even if poor, and we can suppose him 
unavoidably driven about in quest of labor, there is 
nothing to prevent him from reading books drawn by 
those for whom he labors. When not engaged in toil, 
he is surrounded by the agreeable and virtuous influ- 
ences of the family circle. At all events, he is brought 
into no contact, unless a voluntary one, with those de- 
moralizing associations which call for constant coun- 
teraction. But he who, overwhelmed by irretrievable 
calamity, or prostrated by physical infirmity, seeks 
refuge from starvation or beggary within the walls of 
a poor-house, exercises just as little volition as the 
prisoner who is dragged to a jail. No myrmidon of 
the law is more imperative than hunger ! No inno- 
cent citizen should forfeit any right or privilege which 
accrues to him as such, except by his own voluntary 
act ; and surely we should not make his calamities the 
pretext of stripping him of the little that remains to 
him. It would be difficult to assign a reason why the 
aged, the halt, the blind, and the decrepit, should not 
be allowed that solace, amidst decay, suffering, and 
misery, which is held forth freely to the happy and 
affluent. And the homeless and usually orphan chil- 
dren, who are drawing their first impressions of life, 
their first lessons of character, amid the noisome sights 



230 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

and sounds, the polluting atmosphere of a poor-house,* 
have an equally indisputable claim on our justice and 
on our humanity. They are as much the children of 
the republic as those who are born to competence or 
affluence, and their moral and mental wants are great- 
er.t Shall we give to those who have, and withhold 
charity, nay, justice, from the needy ? Is it the part 
of a parental government to administer to the physical 
wants of the youthful pauper, and leave him to a moral 
and mental destitution more appalling in its effects ? 
Who that could choose for his own offspring would 
not rather consign them, early and unpolluted, to the 
dreadful death of starvation, than have them trained 
up in grovelling mental and moral ignorance, ripe 
and predisposed victims for the brothel, the prison, the 
gallows ? 

In relation to the prisoners in our jails, if innocent, 
books would prove a solace and a shield from the con- 
taminating influences by which they are usually sur- 
rounded ; if guilty, they would have a tendency to 



* Perhaps I should say that I have no reason to doubt that 
the poor-house in this county is as well managed as any other 
in the state. But in all such establishments persons of weak 
and disordered mental and moral faculties, the openly vicious, 
and those who, if not decidedly vicious, are low and grovelling 
in their tastes and habits, must sometimes be admitted ; and 
though proper police regulations may prevent overt acts of 
impropriety, it is impossible to prevent the young from daily 
witnessing and coming in contact with much that is calculated 
to sink and deprave them. 

t Though the length of this special report has deterred me 
from enlarging on the topic in my general report, it will be 
readily seen that the reasons here adduced will apply with 
equal force in favor of providing good, at least decent schools 
for pauper children, and not leaving them, as is now done, 
to the teaching of some fellow-pauper, unless such pauper 
teacher can obtain a certificate of qualification from the town 
or county superintendent of common schools. 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 231 

soften and reclaim them. Books surely would prove 
more profitable companions to either class than cards 
and the other implements of games of chance. The 
jail in this county is frequently empty of prisoners, and 
rarely contains more than two or three. Under such 
circumstances, I have seen no objection to allowing the 
prisoners the use of the books of the school district in 
which the jail is situated. (The library is a large one, 
and usually contains perhaps fifty books beyond the 
circulation.) I have, therefore, procured the consent 
of the proper authorities in the district to such an ar- 
rangement, and the engagement of the jailer to ex- 
change and take care of the books. 

The loan of its books is entirely gratuitous on the 
part of the district, and might, at any time, be discon- 
tinued ; and in many counties the number of prisoners 
and other circumstances would render such an ar- 
rangement impracticable or improper. The supply 
should therefore come from some other source. 

I would respectfully suggest to the superintendent 
that he recommend to the legislature an amendment 
to our school laws, requiring the supervisors of the 
several counties to raise the sum of 8 , as other 

school moneys are now raised by them, which, with 
an equal sum paid in the same manner and from the 
same fund with the common school library moneys, 
shall be appropriated to the purchase of a library for 
each poor-house and jail in such several counties of 
the state.* I would further suggest that the above 
blank be filled with a minimum sum of not less than 
$6,50 cents for each jail, and 813,00 for each poor- 
house ;f such sums to be increased, in some fixed 



* With some separate provision for cities, 
t These sums (being doubled by the public money) are be- 
lieved to be sufficient to purchase at least twenty-five volumes 



232 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

ratio, in proportion as the inmates of these establish- 
ments have exceeded the average number of for 
the last two years. To insure a uniformly judicious 
and economical expenditure of such moneys, I recom- 
mend that the selection of these books be given to the 
state superintendent ; that the boards of supervisors of 
counties be required to provide for the safe-keeping 
and repair of such libraries ; that sheriffs or keepers 
of poor-houses be made responsible for losses or in- 
juries, unless they show, to the satisfaction of the 
board of supervisors, that such losses were beyond 
their reasonable prevention or control, in which case 
the county shall bear the loss ; that the sheriff, or his 
jailer, and keepers of poor-houses, be required to act 
as librarians, and, as such, be subject to such rules 
and regulations as the superintendent of common 
schools may prescribe. 

17. On the Propriety of publishing a Catalogue of 
recommended Books. 

The selection of books for the common school libra- 
ries is given to the trustees of school districts ; but the 
state superintendent, and, by the provisions of the act 
of 1843, the county superintendents, have power to 
decide against books remaining in the libraries which 
are deemed improper. Although it is notorious that 
the state superintendent has often exerted this power, 
and although, in the case of this county at least, it is 
one, the necessary exercise of which has never been 
shrunk from, I never yet have heard the propriety of 

and a case, for a jail, and fifty volumes and a case for a poor- 
house, of the most suitable kind of books for such purposes. 

Since writing the above I have ascertained that the super- 
visors of the county of Monroe, at a recent session, appropri- 
ated $25 to the purchase of a library for the poor-house of 
that county. 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 233 

its being so vested in a single instance called in ques- 
tion. The good sense of our people has not failed to 
show them that, to prevent frequent abuses, a super- 
visory jurisdiction of this kind must exist somewhere, 
and they have seemed content to leave it in the hands 
of a class of officers chosen especially to administer 
the laws generally in relation to our common schools. 

Trustees who purchase books for districts are fre- 
quently men who, notwithstanding the good sense and 
public spirit which may belong to them as men and 
as school officers, possess no extended acquaintance 
with books. In by far the greater portion of instances, 
as might be expected, the books which they purchase 
have not been previously read by them. They are 
taken on the specious representations of the vender, 
sometimes the itinerant vender, who fills his case with 
those inferior productions which, having outlived their 
popularity, or never having had any popularity, can 
be purchased by him for a mere trifle. These are 
sometimes disposed of on the condition that, if disap- 
proved of by the state or county superintendent, they 
may be returned. Should they be so disapproved, the 
privilege is secured, on the annual return of the seller, 
of exchanging trash for what mav prove worse trash ! 
It would be unjust to say that the practice of crowding 
these worthless publications on trustees is characteris- 
tic of all itinerant sellers ; and it would be less than 
justice to leave it to be inferred that such practices are 
confined to them. A very large number of books so 
published, if erring in no point sufficiently to call for 
the exercise of a power which should always be so 
delicately wielded as that of removal, are still far from 
b sing of that literary stamp which are best calculated 
to elevate and refine the popular taste. 

The regents of the university, in appropriating funds 
i)\- Lhe purchase of academic libraries, require the 
20 



234 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

trustees of these institutions to select the books from 
a catalogue which is furnished by the regents, or, if 
others are desired, a list of them must first be submit- 
ted to and approved of by the regents. The function 
of these officers is analogous to that of the state su- 
perintendent, and no reason is perceived why the 
same right to control the purchase of books should 
not be vested in one head of department that there is 
in the other. Substantially, there is no wide disparity 
in the right now vested in each ; but there is this 
distinguishing feature — one manifests its power be- 
fore such purchase, the other subsequently. It is 
not difficult to decide that prevention is always bet- 
ter than cure. 

I am not prepared to recommend that the superin- 
tendent of common schools shall assume, authorita- 
tively, to control the selection of the books admitted 
into the school libraries. It might not be proper, and 
I do not believe it necessary. If the mere opinion of 
that functionary were known in relation to particular 
books, there can be but little doubt that it would have 
great, paramount weight, with those feeling diffidence 
in their own ability to decide. All discreet and right- 
minded men would regard with proper respect the de- 
liberately expressed opinion of the superintendent. A 
list or catalogue of approved, and, if thought expedient, 
disapproved books, published by such authority, would, 
it is believed, soon, and without a particle of coercion, 
guide the purchases made in almost every school dis- 
trict in the state. In regard to the disapproved list, at 
least, those disposed to be contumacious could not but 
know that, if advice failed, authority could be employed 
to enforce it. 

The task of preparing such a catalogue would be a 
most responsible, a most onerous one. But he who 
enters upon the office of superintendent of common 



COMMON SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 235 

schools voluntarily assumes the full measure of this 
responsibility ; for there is not a day, during his term 
of office, in which he may not be called upon, in 
the ordinary discharge of his official duties, to decide 
upon the propriety of admitting any book which is to 
be found in print into the school libraries. The prep- 
aration of such a catalogue would doubtless consume 
time. It could not be anticipated that it would be 
made full in the first instance. Additions could be 
from time to time, or annually, made to it. The most 
profound and erudite reader could scarcely decide, 
without reperusal, on many of the works already read 
by him without reference to so particular and impor- 
tant an end. And supposing his examination to be 
brought down to the present day, it would doubtless 
require no small degree of diligence to keep pace with 
the daily advance of literature. Great as would be 
this whole task, however, it is one which could be 
met, particularly were the superintendency of common 
schools disconnected from the labors and duties of the 
office of secretary of state. Inferior capacities and 
inferior energies would start back from a task so Au- 
gean. But he who, with moral and intellectual ca- 
pacities adequate to appreciate the responsibilities and 
influences of the station, — influences to the young, to 
the future, and to our country, compared with which 
that wielded by whole generations of governors dwin- 
dles into insignificance ; — he who, feeling the entire 
weight of this responsibility, nevertheless dares to as- 
sume it, should not weigh his time nor his efforts by 
the ordinary standard of official industry. We stand, 
unless Hope has mistaken her own intensity for pro- 
phetic foresight, in the very transition era of popular 
education, popular intellectual and moral civilization. 
He to whom it is given to lead in this work should 
superadd to the industry of the official the zeal of 



236 MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE. 

the philanthropist, and, if need be, the self-sacrificing 
spirit of the martyr. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

Henry S. Randall, 

Co. Superintendent Common Schools, Cortland County. 
Cortland Village, Nov. 1, 1843. 



PI'RH.ISBEKI> BY 

C g. FRANCIS ft CO. NEW-YORK; 



AND 



J. IT. FRANCIS, BOSTON: 



IIooi* nppiopr air for MrSiool District ILibrnrioH. 



THE LIBRARY OF 
USEFUL 



ENTERTAINING 
READING : 



AND 



Comprising the following twelve volumes, large 18mo. 288 
pages each, namely, 

1. The Mirror. 

Extract fh«ii Co-cte:* ts. Cemeterieg and Burial in Turkey. In- 
formation concerning Hnrlev, Bread, Vermicelli, Brewing, Charcoal 
Coal ami Coal mini s. Anger and Madness. Account of Benares, Basle, 
Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Owyhee and its Volcano, Liege, 
Londonderry and its famous Siege, Luxor and its Ruins, Malvern Hills, 
Thebes and its Ruins, Karnak, and its Temples, Society Islands, &c. 
Anecdotes and Tales of Bonaparte, Addison, Burke, Bishop Hull, .Ten- 
ner, Irving', Johnson, Eavater, Locke, Mtingo Park, Wilherforce, &c. 
Old Castles, namely, Dunvegan, Bnnan Dowan, Shirbourn, <Scc. Dia- 
logue between a clergyman and Deist. Druidical Remains. Old Ca- 
thedrals, Ely, St. David's, &c. Clock at Rouen. Druidical Cromlechs. 
Wild Beasts, Rhinoceros, Elephant, Lemming, &.c. Gypsies. History 
of writing. Natives of Swan River. Skating Soldiers of Norway. Names 
of Streets. With 22 Engravings, including the following : — 



Procession at a Turkish Funeral. 

Etruscan Vases. 

Hop pick iu£r. 

i I ut s of the Charcoal Burners. 

Skating Soldiers of Norway. 



Ruins of the Memnonium. 
The Lemming. 
Colossal Statue at Thebes. 
The Tolmen, or Druid Stone 
Dunrogan Castle. 



2. The Cabinet. 



Extract from Contents. Thebes, its origin and rise, extent and 
internal arrangement, hundred gates, its splendor, decline and ruin, in- 
habitants, grandeur of its ruins, &c. Manners and Customs of the Irish 
Peasantry. Abstinence. Affectation. Agricultural operations. Useful 
Arts described. Hislory of the Battle of Cressy ; of China and its cus- 
toms ; of the Falls of Niagara ; French Gypsies ; Hindoo Pilgrims; Lean- 
ing-Tower of Saragossa ; Lion of Africa ; Beaver Hit manufacture ; 
Usefulness of Birds; Causes of the Earth's fertility j Crops, their pres- 
ervation, &.C Experimental Science; Feats of strength ; Fortitude of 
Women : Mexico, its great temple, idolatry of the people, magnificence 
of the King, besieged by the Spaniards, mode of writing &c. Voyage 
on the Mississippi. Newcastle Coal Trade, &c. &.c. With Engravings, 
among which are 



Bteamer at a wooding stution. 

Eltbain Palace. — Norris Castle. 
Rocking Sto'ic. 
Mississippi overflowing. 



French Gypsies. 
Russian Traveller. 
Interior of a Windmill, 
Plains of Cressy. 



The Casket. 



Extract from Contents. On Gardening, Flotb^ds, Rotatops, Garden 
Vegetables, Salad herbs. Spices, Pick Us, •" '.iga., dtr. Whiskey. Ultra- 
marine. Customs of the Turks, Russian Peasantry, kc. Palm-trees. 
Castle of Pfallz. Bridges ot Britain, France, ami Borne. Planetary 
System. Poisonous Plants. Moharaedan Lent. Shiant Islands Shoes 
and their various forms. Snakes of Ceylon. Highwaymen. Library at 
Constantinople. Travels in Newfoundland Convents. Cathedrals. 
Aqueducts. History of Ceylon, natural and civil. Proper mode of ta- 
king exercise, &.c. With Engravings, among them the following. 



Roman Acqueduct. 
Mr Ion Frame. 
Olive Oil Mill. 
Pagoda at Barrackpore 
Sonthwark Bridge. 



Various Forms of Shoes. 

Old Mathew Hopkins. 

Large Flowering Sensitive Plant. 

Cormorants. 

The Soland Gooso. 



4, The Treasury. 

Extract from Contents. Natural and Civil History of Ovlon ; the 
Natives; Boodhism ; Trial by Jury. &t5. Sugar Maple. Coverings of 
Animals. Hi-story of the Arch. Arabia and Mocha. Attar of Roses. 
Fall of Babylon. Instinct of Birds. The Hermit of Switzerland. Ca- 
thedrals of Caen and Saragossa. Colombo in Ceylon. Debt and Mis- 
ery. Division of Labor. Convent at Saragossa. Female Fortitude. 
Festival of the Bairain. Mode of measuring heights. Manufacture of 
Pott pry. Manners and Customs of the Turks. Mexico, account of the 
modern city, its streets, churches, police, population, <Scc. Hotbeds, 
Hothouses, Conservatories, &.c. Woman, the solace of man. Robert 
Raikes. Poisonous Plants, &.c. With Engravings 5 among them the 
following. 



Church of Guadalupe, Mexico. 

View of Mocha 

Natives of Ceylon. 

Y T ie\v of Columbo. 

Measuring Heights and Distances. 



Different Cider Mills. 
Potters at Work. 
Festival of the Bairarn. 
Street in Rouen. 
Harbor of Havre. 



5. The Budget. 

Extract from Contents. Account of Madrid, its capture by Napo- 
leon, situation and form. Palaces and Churches. Prado, and streets, 
&.c. The Main-Truck, or leap for life. Lady Harriet Ackland and 
her sufferings. Animals used as food. Eugene Aram. Aromatic Vin- 
egar. Savings Banks. History of Bees. Chinese duck-boats. Method 
of preparing Coffee, Chocolate, &lc. City of Cologne. Different Dis- 
positions. Remarks on Cooking Egyptian mode of hatching eggs. 
Female Excellence, a tale of real life. Moscow and its churches. 
Mode of preserving Insects. Account of the coast of Ireland. Rat- 
ishon. St. Robr-rt's chapel and cave. Cathedral of Winchester, of 
Durham, Colchester. &.c. With Engravings, among them the following : 



Palace of the Escurial. 
The Coffee Tree. 
The Dropping \V. II. 
Water Clocks 
Likencs? of Chrichton. 



Pearl Fishermen. 
The Portuguese Man-ofVVar. 
St. Basil's Church, Moscow. 
Male an.! Female ol N. S. Wales. 
View af Fairheud. 



6. The Repertory. 



Extract from Contents — An account of the city of Venire, giving a 
history of its origin, rise, greatness, an. I decline, with a description of 
the interior of tho city and the most remarkable public and private build- 
ings. Excursion in Arabia, Cathedrals of Auxere and of Kirkwall. 
Vordova in Spain. Elephants, and the manner of catching them. Black- 
birds. Errors and superstitions. Corroboree Dance Gizzard in birds. 
History and description of Kirkwall. Alan overboard. Mines of Great 
Britain. Mermaid. Voice in man and animals. Passenger pigeon 01 
America. Account of oysters, muscles, and cockles. Greek islands. 
Csi-I'ul arts — the ox and cow ; milk and butter ; making cheese. Account 
of the sheep, goat, and hog. Wanderings in the American forests, &.c. 
Alc. «kc. With Thirty-three Engravings, including the following:— 

Bridge of Sighs, Venice. Natives of N.S. Wales. — Chums. 

Ducal Palace at Venice. Human head and organs of voico. 

Colonnade and Librury at Venice. Roman Coin. — The Mermaid. 



Kuins of Launceston Castle. 
Portrait of Sir Francis Bacon. 
Diuidical Slonus.— Shell Fish. 



Inclined Plain and Railway. 
Mushrooms. — Cheese- Press. 
Corroboreu Dance of N. S. Wales. 



7. The Tablet 



Eithact from Contents — Account of the city of Brussels, its history, 
situation, and climate, streets, squares, parks, palaces, public buildings, 
manufactures, &.c. with a description of the battle of YVaterloo. Agri- 
culture and gardening in Japan. Allahabad in India. Description ol 
domesticated birds — the common fowl ; the 'urkey and Guinea hen ; the 
goose nnd duck ; the pigeon. Early rising. Deaths of eminent persans 
Forest trees. Greek islands, Chios or Scio. Harvest in Nassau. Hog- 
hunting in the E. Indies. Culture and manufacture of Indigo. Instances 
of insect sagacity. Experiments concerning jugglers. Study of material 
nature. Self-taught mathematician. Great square in the city of Munich 
With many Engravings, including the following: — 



Crystals of Snow. 
The Sumach. 
Crossbows and Arrows. 
Night Scene in N. S. Wales. 
Dun luce Castle. 
Throwing the Lasso. 
Modifications of Cloud*. 



Platte Royale, Brussels. 

Botanic Garden, Brussels. 

Indigo-works in S. America. 

Diamond Cutting and Polishing. 

Carlisle Castle. 

Town Hall at Boulogne. 

Barnacles. 

8. The Memorial 

Extract from Content? — Account of tho city of Rome; Its history, 
origin, rise, and decline ; Description of the neighboring country, the river 
Tiber, interior of the City, walls, gates, and buildings. Adventure on 
the sea of life. Account of the Aldernoy Cow. Bangor Cathedral. Su- 
gacity of the Bear. Account of the Bird of Paradise. Smell in Bit Is 
of Prey. Necessity of attending to Business Account of the Giraffe. 
Indies. People and productions of China. Mode of preserving Corn in 
Morocco. Criminal Law of China. Cruelty to animals. Sir Humphrey 
Davy, &.c. &.c. With many Engravings, including the following? — 



Castle of St Anirolo, Rome, 

St. Peter's, and Bridge of St. Angelo, 

Paper Mulberry — Foxglove Plant. 

Great Bird of Paradise. 

Market Cross at Devizes. 

Giraffes or CameloparJa. 

Street in Dieppe. 



Mackerel Fishery. — Lancashire Ox. 
Aldernoy, Lancashire, and Holdcr- 

ness Cows. 
Pointer, Mastiff, and Greyhound. 
.Natives climbing trees, N.S. Wales. 
Hunting Leopards in India. 
Sulphur burning in Sicily. 



9. The Gleaner. 



Extract from Contents — Further account of the city of Venice, the 
churches, bridge of the Rialto, library of St. Mark, the Campanile, Ti- 
tian's house, inquisition of statu, goniiolas, commerce. Account of the 
principal suspension bridges in the woild, with the methods of construc- 
tion. Bristol Cathedral. Cader Idris. Cassava and Tapioca. Carrier 
Pigeon. Chinese mode of manufacturing Porcelain. Miles Coverdale, 
and his translation of the Bible. Divining-rod. Eagle and her young 
Economy of 'frees. Exercise of the lungs. Fly in Turnips. Halley's 
Comet. Properties of heat. Microscopic Vegetation. Nourishment and 
growth of animals. Trade-Winds, <Scc. Thirty Engraving*, including — 



Shooting a Tiger. 

The Bell Bird. 

Rope-Bridge in India. 

Menai Suspension Bridge. 

The Coypou or Neutra-tur Animal. 

Forest Trees in N. S. Wales. 



Large African Antelope. 
Ancient Egyptian Tottery. 
Egyptian Potters at Work. 
Remarkable Hock in Wales. 
Holy Island Castle. 
The Dogana at Venice. 



10. The Emporium. 



Extract from Contents — Account of the city of Berlin,capital of Prussia, 
its origin and growth, its capture by the French, its streets, bridges, gates, 
houses, squares, palaces, churches, university, and other public buildings, 
manufacture and commerce. Agriculture in Sicily. Anecdote of an Arab. 
Arabs and their horses. Bass Rock. First translation of the bible. City 
of Bruges. China and the Chinese. Confucius. Education ot the blind. 
Earthenware boats. Melancthon the reformer. Study of Insects. The 
weather — rain, snow, hail, vapor, thunder-storm, hurricane, tornado, me- 
teors, &c. The cod, sturgeon, and seal fishery. Extracts from Addison, 
Buckland, Burleigh,Cicero, Cowper, Irving, Johnson, Locke, Montaigne. 
Poetry by Bryant, Necle, Rogers, &.c. Twenty-three Engrav. including 



Portrait of Melancthon. 
The Orang Outang. 
River Missouri. 
The Bass Rock. 
Collecting Assafoetida. 
Weapons of N. S. Wales. 
Two-toed Sloth. 
Water Spout at Sea. 



Brandenburgh Gate, Berlin. 

The Date Tree. 

Tombs at Ghaseepore. 

Gigantic Salamander. 

Duck Bills. 

The Chinchilla. 

The Seal. 

Fog in the Arctic Regions. 

11. The Selector. 

Extract from Contents — Account of the city of Rome, the ruins, theil 
mateiials and style of building, the Mamertine prisons, the great sewer, 
(Auirinal hill, the ford, &c. Abbey of Glastonbury. African god of thu 
wood. Ancient mode of burial Anecdotes of Abbas the great ; Sir E. 
Urlmat ; a Persian miser ; a dog. Biography of Cowper ; of Erasmus. De- 
velopement of the faculties. Fall of the Stauback. Hachn king of Lap- 
land. Mohammed Ali pacha of Egypt. Natural history. Whale fishery. 
Wreck of the Quail. Extracts from Addison, Bacon, Burke, Coleridge, 
Ccmbe, Hooker, Johnson, Kirby,Lpwth, Paley, South, Southey, De Stael, 
Swift, Turner. Poetry by Finn, Peabody, llemuns, &c. &.c. &.C. With 
Twenty-seven Engravings, including the following : — 

Rrahminee Bull. 



Lion and Buffalo Fight. 
Monkey picking the Crow. 
Glastonbury Abbey. 
Women of N.S.WaJes weepins 

over a Grave. 
Mohammedan Fakeer. 



Implements used in Whale Fishery 

The Greenland Whale. 
Nest of the Harvest Mouse. 
Whale 'i ossing a Boat. 



12. The Galaxy. 

Extract FkOM Contkrts — Tour through the Highlands and Islands of 
Scotland; manne s and customs; the herring Oahery ; salmon fishery; 
Inverness. Anecdotes of a general officer ; a (JeniKin Professor; Dr. liar- 
row ; Snoeatoo the engineer ; electric eel ; the wild-biid-eatcher ; ants; 
Kirkner t!ie astronomer; Uu!ier the naturalist. Education of bulfinches. 
Method of weaving carpets. Cataract of LoJore. Dead sea. Electricity, 
galvanism, magnetism. English farmers in Australia. Pakeers. Fall of 
Locusts. Lac-insect. Light. Manners of the Anglo-Saxons. Monkeys 
in N. S. Wales Neufcbutel. Forest trees. Opium and opium eaters. 
Pernicious effects of spirituous liquors. Poisonous vegetables. Ciueen 
Elizabeth. Ravages ol insects, ^tonn in Portugal. Useful arts — brick- 
making, bricklaying, masonry. Wasps ami bees. The weather — the 
rainbow, the aurora, shooting stars., and meteors Wild bird catching, 
&.c. &.c. &.<•.. Twenty-six Engravings, including the following: — 
Perilous leap of a flird-catcher. Briekmakiug. 



The Hemlock. 
Ceylon Deer. 
Electro-magnet. 
Stone Sawing. 
Monkey of IS'. S. Wales. 



Bricklaying. 
The Spruce Fir. 
The Ash. 
The Willow. 
Scotch Fir. 



LIBRARY OF INSTRUCTIVE AMUSEMENT 

Includes the following Six Volumes of 336 pages each, 
ISmo. 

13. The Young Man's Evening Book. 

Extract from Contents — Account of Pompeii; Advanta- 
ges of the diffusion of Knowledge ; Adventures ; Anecdotes 
of Dr. A. Clarke, of the Dog, Goat and other animals ; ol 
blind persons, of Hume, Hogg, Curran, Putnam, Sheridan ; 
Camels ; Elephants ; Ingenuity of the Chinese ; Clever 
women; Cocoa; Clove; Curious river; Decision of Char- 
acter ; a Derbyshire tale ; Deafness ; Destructive shell ; 
Dragon Tree; Driving wild cattle ; Duels; Earthquake at 
Lisbon ; Egg oven ; Fascination of Serpents; Fearful ad- 
venture; Gaming houses; Good breeding ; Good provi- 
dence of God ; The Aloe ; Town of Muscat ; Horns of 
Cattle ; Hunting the Zebra ; Icebergs ; Influence of the 
Moon; Irish Bull; Ispahan; Kentucky sports ; Duration 
of life ; Manufacture of glass ; Mountain travelling ; The 
Mississippi ; Palmyra ; President's house ; Printing and 
stereotyping; Sugar cane; Religious education of chil- 
dren; Russian justice; Scenes among the Indians ; Sce- 
nery on the Ohio ; Snuff-taking and smoking ; Poetry by 
Bryant, Wilson, Cornwall, Moore, Dale, Sands, Southey 
Tortoise catching 1 ; Tornadoes: Tour from the Pacific ft 
the Atlantic ; Whale fishery ; Wild sports, &e. ccc. 

Iu.U&THATED BY FlFTY EnU RAVINGS. 



11. The Winter-Evening Book. 

Extract from Contents. — Abbotsford ; Abbreviations and 
signs; Air and exercise ; Anecdotes; Architecture of birds; 
Art of writing ; Attraction ; Bridges ; Buffalo light house ; 
Camphor ; Charlotte Corday ; Constantinople ; City of 
Dublin ; Biography of Canova, Burke; Garden in ships ; 
Growth of plants ; Guillotine; Gymnastics; Hall of the 
Jacobins; Hints to Talkers: Indigo; Italian banditti; 
Lapland skate runners ; Lythography ; Lowell ; Martyr- 
dom of St. Vincent ; Mechanical power ; Meteors ; Mon- 
key's bread ; Montreal ; Nest of the canary ; New Zeal- 
anders ; Persecution of genius; Pet monkey and sailors; 
Pickpockets ; Place Vendome ; Planting ; Poisons of the 
ancients; Popular errors in medicine; Progress of Amer- 
ica ; Pronunciation ; Railways ; Ravages of Locusts ; Re- 
markable travels ; Road of the Simplon ; Capt. Ross ; 
Sago; Saturday evening: Sea Otter; Secretary bird; 
Treatment of sprains ; Trumpeter bird ; Turkey Vulture : 
Turnip bread ; Use of forks ; &c. &c. 

Illustrated with Sixty-one Engravings. 

15. The Summer-Day Book. 

Extract from Contents — Agricultural Hymn ; American 
Herculaneum ; Oak; Ancient Britons ; Ancient mounds in 
the west ; Antiquities of Gautimala; Artificial opening in 
the stomach ; Bathing; Bird architecture : Bread; Burn- 
ing water ; Camel Fights : Camphire tree ; Caravan in the 
desert ; Carnauba tree ; Cherokee Indians ; Chestnut tree ; 
Impolicy of rearing dogs; Lorenzo Dow ; Education in 
the United States ; Fig ; Flowers and music ; Farinaceous 
food; Fossil; Exhilarating gas; Sketches of Georgia; 
Mackarel fishing ; Madras and the monsoons ; Mahogany 
tree ; Mangrove ; Mis-education ; Mutations of the Alpha- 
bet ; New England; New-Haven; History of newspapers ; 
New-Zealand ; Paper from corn husks ; Philosophy of 
clouds and lightning ; Poi bird ; Poisonous honey ; History 
of Portland ; Presence of mind ; Progress of knowledge ; 
Jane C. Rider the somnambulist; Robin Hood; Roman 
emperor and empress ; Sailing matches ; Scenes in India ; 
Street education ; Substances used for food; Does sugar 
injure the teeth ; Swpet potatoe ; Tattooing; Tobacco and 
snuff-taking ; Tragacanth ; Tropical fruits ; Winter in 
Russia ; Wooden pavement ; Ace. ice. &cc. 

Illustrated with Seventy-two Engravings. 



16. The Even-Day Book. 



Extract from Contents. — American Antiquities : Ancient 
customs in New England : Animals in peat : Astonishing 
memory : Bath>ing : Book of health : Burning green wood : 
Cabinets of natural history: Carder-bees: Carrying bur- 
dens on the head : Catherine I. of Kussia: Chamois hunt- 
ing : Chimneys : Cigar factory : Clean your teeth : Colise- 
um of Vespasian : Consumption of poultry in Paris : Con- 
stantinople : Discoveries earlier than Columbus : Discov- 
eries of Columbus : Education of the eye : Egyptian 
mummies: Eminent shoemakers: Esquimaux indians . 
Extraordinary abstinence: Female education. French 
Revolution : Fuel and fire : Giraffe : Gypsies : Heat of the 
body : History of a New England town : Iceland moss : 
Indian funeral : Indian relics : Influence of cities : Intem- 
perance : Long evenings : Monopolists : Mountain railing : 
Omai the Otaheitan : Organic remains : Polytechnic school 
at Paris : Pompous processions : Popular science : Remi- 
niscences of Philadelphia: the Rothschilds: Saturday night : 
Savage weapons and ornaments : New Orleans in 1938 
School-meeting dialogue: Silver mines : Social wasp's 
nests : Lion's tongue : Tenderness to animals : Tribute to 
Lafayette : Turkish Libraries : War dress : Warm bathing : 
City of Washington : Western hunting : Whimsical horse : 
Ace. ice. ice. Seventy-one Engravings. 



17. The Parlour Book 



Extract from Contents. — American forest trees and an- 
tiquities : Audubon : Augustus, Virgil, and Horace : 
Roger Bacon : Bathing : Religious uses of blood : Showers 
of blood : Building and architecture : City of Candy : Edu- 
cation of cats : Chameleon : Diet of Chinese : Clouds : 
Spontaneous combustion : Domestic Animals : Dreams : 
Eider Duck : Village of Economy . Eel : Strange effect of 
fear: Fox and wolf: Gaza: Gratitude: Heroine of the 
Sierra Morena : Herring fishing : Human happiness 
Humming bird : Hyaena . Italian sleep walker : Joan 
D' Arc : Mechanics Institution : Errors in medicine : Music : 
How to become a naturalist : Oratory : Ferdinand Mendez 
Pinto : Pompeii : Pottery : Ramah : Rice : Savages of N. 
America : Sculpture : Seasons at the Cape of Good Hope : 
Fascination of serpents: Shoes and buckles : Star gazing : 
Sensibility of vegetables : Wants of mankind : Watering 
places: &c. ccc. ccc. Twenty-seven Engravings. 



tt Leisure Hour Book, 

Contents — Absence of mind; African hemp plant; Ame- 
rican fishes; Artizan well ; Migration of bees ; Beet-root 
sugar; Burtpore ; Camel; Cholera; Chronometers; Coal; 
City of Columbus ; Comets; Conquest of Peru ; Cooking by 
gas ; Echoes and sound ; Education of the blind ; Elephant 
hunting; Embalming; Entomology; Esquimaux; the 
Eye ; Dr. Francia, dictator of Paraguay ; Gambling ; Her- 
culaneum; Heron; Himalaya mountains; Hydrostatic 
press; river Jordan ; Lama; Light and heat in animals ; 
Light in Water; Metallic balloons ; Ornithology; Pepper 
trade; Pompeii; Biography of Rittenhouse, Capt. Ross, 
Roger Sherman ; Scotch bagpiper ; Shooting Stars ; Steam 
engine; Steel pen and quills ; Gall flies ; Tupai Cupa, the 
New Zealand prince ; Tea and tea trade j Tremont house ; 
Tulips; Vegetation of the Pampas; Vesuvius; Walking 
pump; Mechanism of the watch; Water wheels; Water 
clock ; &c. &c. 6cc. Fifty-five Engravings. 

19. Belzoni's Travels in Egypt. 

Or FRUITS OF ENTERPRISE, exhibited in the ADVENTURES OF 
BELZONI in Egypt and Nubia ; with an account or" his discoveries a- 
mong the Pyramids, in the ancient Tombs, among the Ruins of Temples 
and Cities, in the Deserts, and on the shores of the Red Sea ; related in 
a very interesting manner, and illustrated hy copperplate engravings. 
Summary ok Contents. — The Pyramids. Winds of the Desert. Cairo. 
Bashaw's amusements. Hydraulic machine. Vo\age up the Nile. Ruins 
of Thebes. Interior of the caves. Deceit of the Arabs. Wreck on the 
Nile. Opening the temple. Embarkation of the young Memnou. Tem- 
ple at Karnac. Mummy caves at Gournou. Habitations and marriages 
in the caves of Cournou. Sand wind of the Desert. Temple opened. 
Great tomb opened. Visit to the Pyramids. Journey to the Red Sea. 
Inundation of the Nile. Pompeii. Adventures in the Deseit. Singular 
fishing in the Red Sea. Exploit of sailors with a kite. Pompey's pillar. 
Descent of the cataract. Hyaena. Bedouins, &c. &c. &c. 



20. True Stories from Ancient History, 

Chronologically Arranged, from the Creation of the World to the Death 
of Charlemagne. By a Lady. With Engravings. 
Summary ok Contents.— Creation of the world. Babylon. Egypt. Sem- 
iramis. Sesostris. Sparta Helena. Paris. Lycurgus. Carthage. Rome. 
The Sabinps Nuina. Athens. Theseus. Ariadne. Horatii and Curiatii. 
Draco. Solon. A^sop. Cyrus. Confucius. Kings of Rome. Marathon. 
Aristides. Brutus Coriolanus. Xerxes. Leonidas. Cincinnatus. Vir- 
ginia. Pericles. Alcibiades Socrates. Xenophon. Camillus. Rome 
saved by geese. Epatninondos. TorquatU3. Philip of Macedon. De- 
mosthenes. Alexander the Gre;tt ; bis successors. Punic wars. Hanni- 
bal. Archimedes. Catalioe. Cicero. Conquest of Britain. Anthony 
and Cleopatra. Birth of Christ. Destruction of Jerusalem. Plutarch. 
The Saracens, Goths, Celts, and Huns. Ossian. Constantino. Julian. 
Picts and Scots. Attila. Franks. King Arthur. Venice. Mohammed. 
Bt.Augustiue. Charlemagne, <xc. &.c. 



21 & 22. Around the World. 

A NARRATIVE of a Voyage in the East India Squadron under Com 
George C Read. By bit officer of the U. S. Navy, -2 \ols. 12mo. A 
vory interesting, well written, and spirited account of life on board a 
man-of-war, and adventures in various countries, during a voyage round 
the world. 

Summary of Contents. — Jit sea— Interior of the frigate. Cockpit philos- 
ophy. Tacking. Treatment of the mariners. Rf ligious worship. Sab- 
bath influences. The brave, good sailor. A thunder squall. Burial of a 
sailor. Land ho ! Madeira — Funchal. Our lady of the mountain. The 
old Padre. Climate of Madeira. Santa Clara convent. The nun. Ball 
at the consul's. Wines. Rambling in Funchal. The floating meadow. 
' Weathering ' at sea. The southern stars. Crossing the line. Rio de 
Janeiro — Edifices. Robbers. Public institutions. The legroes. Con- 
vent. Cathedral. The palace. Departure. Schools at sea. A gale. 
Cape of Goud Hope — Bad omens. Madagascar — Lunar rainbow. Yankee 
navigation. Telling yarns. A shipwreck. Swimming. Shark story 
Sabbath schools. Reading sailors. Human the Hindoo. Arab pilot. 
Arabia — Discovery of coffee. Muscat — the Bazaar. Arabian women. 
Bedouin camp. Moslem fidelity. The only murder. Zanzibar — Inhabi- 
tants. Amusements. The sultan. The harem. Arabian hospitalities 
Ilindostau — devolutions. Heroes. British policy. Palankeen ride- Hin- 
doo chicanery. Central school. Native school. Hindoo feists. Brah- 
mins. Horrid murder. Mosque. Indian luxuriance. Elephanta. Lithic 
elephant. Goa. Pungee village. Inquisition. Portuguese friyate. Cey- 
lon — Budhism. Environs of Colombo. City of Kandy. Snake charmer. 
Orang Uutang. Jack as a marine. Sumatra — Bombardment of (Auallah 
Battoo. Landing at, and capture of Muckie. Treaty. Account of the 
inhabitants. Prince of Wales Island Malacca. \\ ater spouts. Singa- 
pore — Climate. A tradition. Temples. Eastern Archipelago. Plantations. 
Chinese customs. Wives of bis majesty. A burial. China difficulties. 
China— Macao bay. Mr. Beale's garden. Street scenes. The camp. 
Temples. Funeral. A shot at the Junks. Missionaries. Medical mis- 
sions. Scenes in and about Canton. Chinese foreign relations. Portu- 
guese and Dutch in China. Opium trade. The Tafoong. Ooh'i. Ta/teite. 
(lueen Pomare Chile. Valparaiso. Adventures in and about Santiago. 
Peru. Lima. Callao. Passage round Cape Horn. Arrival at Boston. 

Illustrated by Steel Plate views of city of Muscat, and of the Destruction 
of Muckie by the American Ships. 



23 & 24. Zonobia : or Fall of Palmyra, 

In Letters from Lucius M. Piso to his friend Marcus Curtius at Rome. 
'2 vols. 12mo. 

This work must bo ranked as a modern classic, it is a model of style and 
gives a beautifully written and animated description of life and manners 
in the magnificent city of Palmyra, during the reign of its famous queen 
Zenobia, when it was beseiged and taken by the Romans under the emper- 
or Aurelian, soon after the introduction of Christianity. The North Am- 
erican Review says of this, that it is • one of the most brilliant additions 
to American literature.' 



25 to 23. Memoirs of the life of Walter Scott 

By his Son-in-Law, J. G. LOCKHART. In four thick volumes, full 
bound. 
A biography of this wonderful man, which should bo made accessible to 
every reader. 



29. History of Samlford and Merlon, 

By Thomas Day, Esq. A new edition of this excellent work, revised 
throughout, and embellished with a large number of engravings. 
Extract from Contents. — Meeting of llnrry Sandford and Tommy Mer- 
ton. Importance of education. Stories of (lie fliefl and the ants. The 
gentleman and the basket maker. Story of Cyrus. Account of the Russian 
sailors on the island of Spitsbergen. The elephant. Hou«c building. 
Grateful Turk. Disappointments and difficulties overcome by thought and 
perseverance. Crocodile. Hears and monkeys. Education of animals. 
Laplanders. Reindeer. Surprising cure for the gout. Tommy and Harry 
in a snow storm. Persons buried in the snow. Mechanics. Arithmetic. 
Astronomy. History of Agosila us Leondidas of Sparta. The conjurer 
Mariners' compass. Greenland Kamschatka. Teleseope. Magic Lantern, 
Optics. Tommy and the dog Caesar. Greenlander's duel. Bull-baiting 
Story of Polerno. Sophron and Tigranes. Tommy's expedition on horse 
back. Adventures in the wilds of America. Battles with the Indians. 
Effects of gunpowder, ice. &.c. &.c. 



30 to §9 Parley's Magazine. 

In ten large square volumes, replete with valuable reading for the young 
fcr portion of the community. It is filled principally with original matter 
prepared expressly for the instruction and amusement of young people, 
and with regard to their advancement in knowledge and usefulness. It 
forms a most attractive and useful series of volumes. The contents are 
eo extensive and various that, it would he impossible to give any list of 
them in an advertisement. An examination of the work itself must satis- 
fy every one of its admirable adaptation to the objects had in view in its 
preparation. The ten volumes contain nearly two thousand engravings 
And considering its size and the quantity of matter, it is one of the cheap- 
est books ever published. 03= •'. is still regularly published in Monthly 
Numbers, at one dollar a year ^/^Q 

§C}*- The Hooks numbered 1 to 12 are just published ; those from 13 to 18 
have been introduced into many School District Libraries ; and we can 
adduce the commendation of Hon Edward Everett, and others of 
excellent judgment, to the value of these volumes. 

SECOND SERIES. 



-10. The Principles of Morality, 

And the Private and Political RIGHTS and OBLIGATIONS of 
Mankind. By Jonathan Dymo.no. Edited by Caroline M. 

Kirkla nd. 
Contents — Essay I. Moral obligations. Standard of right and wrong. The 
will of God. Subordinate standards. Moral and religious obligations. Di- 
vine attributes. Virtue. Scripture. Morality of the three dispensations. 
Renevolence. Conscience. A moral sense. Law of the land, of nature, of 
nations, of honor. Utility. Esuay II. Religious obligations Sabbatical 
institutions. Property. Litigation. Arbitration. Legal practice. Promises. 
Lies. Oaths. Immoral agency. Influence of individuals on public opinion. 
Education. Amusements. Duelling Suicide. Self-defence. Estay III. 
Political truth and rectitude. Political power. Civil, political and "relig- 
ious liberty. Obedience. Forms of government. Party. Moral Legislation. 
Justice. Subjects of penal animadversion. Ends of Punishment. Punish- 
ment of death. Religious establishments. Patriotism. Slavery. War. 



41. A New Home— Who'll Follow? 

Or Glimpses of WESTERN LIFE. By Mrs. Mart Cla^rs, an 
actual Settler. ( Mrs. C. M. Kirkland. ) 

42 & 43. Forest Lii'e _ 

By the Author of "A New Home." 
These are two of the most spirited and original works that have yet been 
produced in this country. The real enjoyments of life in the new States, 
are set forth in their true colours; but the real inconveniences, and an- 
noyances, and sacrifices which belong to it, are not extenuated. They 
give a simple picture of a home on the outskirts of civilization, and pro- 
sent us with an unvarnished tale of the life of an emigrant. They are a- 
musing in the extreme, and the reader may almost fancy himself in Mich- 
igan, participating in the pleasures and troubles of the farr authoress. 
Half nn hour with one of these books is like half an hour's chat with one 
of our pleasant western kinsfolk. 



44, Letters from New York, 

By Lydia Maria Child. 
Contents. — The Battery Streets of modern Babylon. Washingtonians. 
Street music. Law of love. Dog-killers. Sectarian walls. Ideas of 
God. Poor woman's garden. Society makes the crime it punishes. Ho- 
boken. Weehawken. Hamilton's duei. Indian sarcasm. Highland be- 
nevolent society. Jews. Old clothes. Beading by lamplight. Rev. 
John Summerfield. Speculations. Greenwood cemetery. Mourning. 
The shipping. Yankee boy and his acorn. The Kamschatka and Bella 
Poulo. Ravenswood. Grant Thorburn. Changing population of New 
York. Absent men. Bag-piper. Beautiful burial. Eloquent preacher. 
Zcek the slave. New Year. Past and future. Music. Caution to re- 
formers. Scenery within the soul. Valley de sham. Truth irr act. For- 
eign boys. Newspaper boy. Drunken woman. Burying ground for tho 
poor. McDonald Clarke. Great fir". Jane Plato's garden. Money is 
not wealth. Doves in Broadway. The Dove and the pirate. Prisoners 
and doves. Genius inspired by holiness. Origin of Manhattan. Anti- 
quities of New York. The fish and the ring. Animal magnetism. The 
soul watching its own body. Second sight Birds. The snake and the 
white ash. Parrot. Swallows. Statin Island. Sailors' snug harbour. 
Florida slave trader. Little child and the clover blossom. Music and 
fire-works at Castle-garden. Rockland lake. Major Andre. Dutch far- 
mers. Flowers. Music and light. Music of the planets. Burning bell- 
tower of Hamburgh. Mysterious music. Mocking bird and bob-o'-link. 
The ira'.ch seller. Beautiful anecdote. Horses tamed. Blackwell's Is- 
land. Long Island farms. Sylvio Pellico. Model alms-house. Croton 
water. The fountains. Capital punishment. Mercy to criminals. Mrs. 
Fry. Love-tokens. Catholic church. Puseyism. Anecdotes of tho I- 
rish. Woman's rights. Lightning. Daguerreotype. Indians. Swe- 
denborg and Fourier. Snow storm. Cold-footed and warm-heartod little 
ones. Ministration* of sorrow. May day in New York. 



45, Conversations on Common Things. 

Or a GUIDE to KNOWLEDGE. By A Ladt. ( Mian D. L. Drx.) 
This volume contains a familiar description of about four hundred useful 
and ornamental articles; such as are met with in everyday life. 



46 to 52, Tales of a Grandfather, 

Being TRUE STORIES from the Histories of Scotland and France, 
By Sib Walter Scott. 

These tales were written by Sir Walter Scott for the use of his grand- 
son. They embrace a general view of Scottish and French History, with 
a selection of the most interesting incidents related in the unrivaled 
style of the author. 

Abstract of Contents. — Vol I. England and Scotland. Macbeth. Nor- 
man conquest. Sir Wm. Wallace. Robert Bruce. Battle of Bannock- 
burn Government of Scotland. Edward Baliol. Halidon Hill. Tour- 
nament. War of 1.185. Murder of Earl Douglas. Wars of the Doug- 
lases. Invasion of England. Battle of Flodden. James V. Border 
freebooters. Church of Rome. The Reformation. War with England. 
Mary Queen of Scots. Murder of Rizzio. Death of Damley. Regent 

- Murray. Civil Wars. Execution of Mary. Sec. Sec. &c. 

Vol. II. — Progress of Civilisation. Elizabeth. James VI. Border feuds. 
Wild state of the Western Isles. Donald of the Hammer. Scotsmen 
in foreign service. Puritans Covenanters. Long Parliament. Charles 
I. Civil wars. Graham of Montrose- Religious persecutions. Crom- 
well's invasions. Charles II. Exploits of Evan Dhu. Witchciaft. 
General Monk. Sec. Sec. &c. 

Vol. III. — Church affairs. Episcopacy. Conventicles. Covenanters- 
Assassination of Bishop Sharpe. Graham of Ciaverhouse. Battle of 
Bothwell bridge. Cameronians. Duke of Monmouth. Whig and Tory. 
Popery and the Test Act. William and Wary. Civil war. Battle of 
Killiecrankie. Pacification of the Highlands. Massacre of Glencoe. 
Uarien scheme. Execution of Capt. Green. Queen Anne. Tbe 
Union. &.c. <Stc. &.c. 

Vol. IV Mutual dislike between Scots and English. Chevalier de St. 

George. The Jacobites. Dukes of Hamilton and Argyle. Duchess 
of Marlborough. Bolinbroke and Oxford. The Highlands. State of 
parties. Earl of Mar. Rebellion of 1715. The Pretender. Macin- 
tosh's descent upon Lothian. Battle of Sheriffmuil. Riots in Glasgow. 
The Porteus Mob. &c. Sec. &.c. 

Vol. V. — State of the Highlands and Lowlands. Frazer lord Lovat. Sir 
Robert Walpole. George I and II. Marriage and adventures of the 
Chevalier. Prince Charles Edward. Invasion of Scotland and England. 
Possession of Edinburgh. King James VIII. Battle of Prestonpaus. 
Battle of Falkirk. Battle of Culloden. Adventures of Prince Charles, 
his escape and death. Conclusion. &.c. &.c. &c. 

Vol. VL — Account of the Gauls. Roman Government Julian the 
Apostate. The Goths. Attila. Conquests of Clovis. The Saracens. 
Charlemagne. Louis the debonnaire. Siege of Paris. Feudal system. 
Rollo duke of Normandy. Charles the simple. War with Germany. 
Hugo Capet. Henry I. Chivalry. Saxon conquest of England. Nor- 
man conquest. William the conqueror. Philip Augustus. The Cru- 
sades. Knights of St John. Wars in the holy land. Quarrel of Louis 
and Eleanor. Henry II. of England. Thomas a Becket. Richard Cc?ur 
de Lion. The Albigenses. Invasion of England. Queen Blanche. 
Louis the lion and his adventares in the holy land. &c. &c. &c 

Vol. VII. — Chants of Anjou. Sicilian Vespers. Philip the fair. Knights 
Templars. Affairs of England. Wars between England and France. 
Gunpowder. Battle of Cressy. Queen Philippa. Black Prince. Battle 
ofPoictiers. The Jacquerie War in Normandy. Don Pedro of Castile. 
Bertrand du Guesclin. Charles the wise. Wars in Flanders. Duke of 
Burgundy. Expeditions against the Turks, ice. Sec. &.c 



53. Mental and Moral Culture, 

And POPULAH EDUCATION. By S. S. Randall. Gen. Dep. Su- 
perintendent of Common Schools in the State of New York. To 
which is appended a SPECIAL Rl. PORT on COMMON SCHOOL 
LIBRARIES ; prepared in pursuance of the instructions of the Su- 
perintendent of Common Schools ; by Henry S. Randall, Super 
intendent of Cortland County. 
Contents. — Chap. I 'J'he philosophy of education. Chap. If. Physical, 
intellectual, and moral culture. Cnap. III. The nature and mission of 
Genius. C/uip 11'. Mental philosophy. Chap. V. Formation and de- 
velopement of character. Chap. VI. Moral responsibility. Chap. VII. 
Public instruction. Chap. VIII. Colleges, academies, and common 
schools. Appendix. Report on common school Libraries. 



&i, The Librarian. 



A Book for the PARLOUR and for the SCHOOL DISTRICT. 
Contents. — Advantages of knowledge. May- Sleep. The comet. Turk- 
ish scenes. liural Bights and sounds. Health. The lily. Natural bridge 
in Virginia. Eternity. The wren. Anecdotes of silk, of dwarfs, of bees, 
of cranes, of a Sandwich-islander, of the grasshopper, ofsailors, of In- 
dians, of lobsters. Human tongue. Eyes of fishes. Visit to Lowell. Cu- 
rious facts in natural history. Voleanos. Facts for seamen and swim- 
mers. The Missourium. Blue Beard. Chinese wall. Casualties of 
great men. Cooking in Persia. Dutchman and bear. Pillars of Hercu- 
les. Bucaniers. Charades. Immortality. Sepulchres of kings. Massa- 
chusetts fisheries. Niagara falls. .Mount Holyoke. The farmers daugh- 
ter. &c. &.C. &.C. 



55, Parley's Magazine. Vol. xi 

This Volume contains 400 pages printed in double columns, and includes 
more than three hundred interesting and instructive articles, — consisting 
of Moral Tales, Entertaining Anecdotes, Voyages and Travels, Natural 
History, &.c. &c. Illustrated by 100 Engravings. 



56, Historical Tales 



Of ILLUSTRIOUS CHILDREN. By Agnes Strickland. Author 
of " Lives of the Queens of England. " With Ten Engravings. 
Contents. — Guthred, the widow's sla\e. The royal brothers. The chase 
of Wareham. Sons of the conqueror. Wolsey bridge. Judgment of Sir 
Thomas More. Lady Lucy's petition. Historical Summary. 



57, Tales of the Saxons, 



By Emily Taylor. With Fight Engravings. 

Contents. — llaco the good. Hereward the Saxon. Edith the forester's 
daughter. Manners of the Saxons. 

{fcjT The object of the two last mentioned works is to oftvr a series of moral 
and instructive tales, each founded on some striking authentic fact in 
English History, in which it is the author's wish to convey, in a pleasing 
form, information illustrative of the manners and customs of the era con- 
nected with the event* of each story. 



BOYS' AND GIRLS' LIBRARY. 

Includes the following twelve vols, of uniform size. 

58. Perilous Adventures of Quintin Harewood, 

And his BROTHER BRIAN, in ASIA, AFRICA, and AMERICA. 
Illustrated with Seventy Engravings. 
Extract from Contents. — tluintin's birth-place, Youthful feats, Adven- 
ture at the waterfall. Boat upset, Lives saved, Visit to Paris, Gaming table, 
Fatal disaster, Voyage to Philadelphia, Kentucky, Skunk, Cougar, Narrow 
escape, Snakes in the .Mississippi valley, falls of Niagara, New York, Sail 
to Newfoundland, .Midnight adventure, Beaver, Cod fishing, Storm at sea, 
Whale fishery, Icebergs, Steamer President, Sea horse, Bear, Utters, 
Wolves and Foxes, Indians, Mad buffalo, Montreal, Adventures among 
the Indians, Arrival in North American forests, Voyage to South Ameri- 
ca, Water spouts, Driven to sea in a boat, Monkey right, Alligators, A it- 
venture with Robbers, Jaguar hunt, Dangerous passes of the mountain, 
Electrical eel, Wild horses, Embark tor Africa, Sailor's yarn, Adventure 
with a 'ion, Isle of France, Peter Botte mountain, Arabia, Red Sea, Cam- 
el fight, Ostrich, Caravan, Plundered by the Bedouins, Ceylon, Elephant 
hunt, Trees and fruit in India, Snakes, Combat of wild beasts, Wild boar 
hunt, Fight between an Elephant and a Rhinoceros, Cave of Elephanta, 
Alligator hunt, New Holland, Mutineers, Voyage to Liverpool, Ate. &.c 

59. Farewell Tales. 

By Mrs. Hofland With Engravings. 
Containing — Girls I have known, Dapple and his Friends, Village Flo- 
rist, Young Emigrant, Helpless Orphans, Lost Day, Little Rachel, Young 
Angler, Delightful Morning, Poor little Lucy, Janetta and her Jujubes, 
Salutary Fear, New Flibbertigibbet. 



60 & 61. Robinson Crusoe. 



LIFE and ADVENTURES of ROBINSON CRUSOE, of YORK, 
Mariner. With an account of his Travels round three parts of the globe. 
Written by himself. In 2 volumes. 
This edition contains the whole of the work as originally written by the 
author, and is illustrated by Thirty new Engravings 



62. Parley's Bible Stories. 



For CHILDREN and YOUTH, with Engravings. Containing a se- 
lection of the most remarkable narratives from the Old and !^ew Testa- 
ments, related in a style to attract and interest young readers. 
Contents. — Stories fro in the Old Testament — The Creation, Cain and Abel, 
Noah and the flood, Abraham, Joseph, Moses and the Israelites, Jews 
wandering forty years, Isiaelites' journey to Canaan, Ruth, Samuel, David, 
David and Goliath, Saul's persecution of David, Solomon, Jeroboam, 
Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, King Hezekiah. Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, Bet- 
shazzar's feast and King Darius, King Ahasuerus and the Jews. — J\"ew 
Testament — Birth of John the Baptist, Birth of Christ, Shepherds, Wise 
men, Passover, Baptism, Temptation, Woman of Samaria, Nobleman's 
son, Draught of fishes, Pool of Bethesda, Widow of Nain, Sower, Murder 
of John, Loaves and fishes, Storm, Cood Samaritan, Prodigal boo, Rich 
man, Little children, Lazarus, Ten Virgins, Christ's agony, the Denial, 
Crucifixion, Resurrection. 



03. Paul Preston's Voyages, Travels, 

And REMARKABLE ADVENTURES, as related by himself. Illus- 
trated by One Hundred and Ten Engr av ings. 
Extract from Contents. — I'aul Preston and his parents, Warwick and 
Kenilwortfa castle, Hazardous enterprise, Highwaymen, Newfoundland, 

Sea Voyage, Fearlessness of sailors, Taking a shark, Superstitions of Sai« 
lors, Sword fish, Ireland, Ship on tire, Explosion, Quebec, Deer hunting, 
Shetland Islands, Mai-lstioom, Ootteuburg, Adventure with a beat, bear 
hunt, Forest on fire, Eagle tight, Language of brutes, Long Island fanner 
and Labrador geese, Young tiger and dog, Wolves, Elephants, Lapland, 
Northern lights, Taming wild animals, Rein deer, Petersburg, Statue of 
Peter the Great, Russian robbers, Death of the robber captain, Strange 
tale of a Hippopotamus, Moonlight adventure, Affecting tale, Sea wolf, 
Holland and Netherlands, Siege of Antwerp, Dutch giant, the Rhine, Swit- 
zerland, Chamois hunters, Glaziers, Monks of Ja Trappe, Fearful precipice, 
Broken bridge, France, Fight between a horse and a lion, Adventure with 
a wolf, Spam,' Battle between the French and the Spaniards and Portu- 
geese, Madrid, Bullfight, the Penitent, Mysterious murder, Andalusian 
banditti, Slave ship, Africa, Algiers and the French, Huts in trees, Greece, 
Temple in rnins, Albanians and Suliots, Pirates' cave, Constantinople^ 
Mosque of St. Sophia, Dervishes, Egypt, the Nile, Hippopotamus, Hy- 
aena, Giraffe hunt, Egyptian antiquities, Crocodiles, Caravans, Voyage 
across the Atlantic, Paul and Frank arrive at Boston, &.c. &cc. 



64. Swiss Family Robinson: 

Or ADVENTURES of 1 FATHER, MOTHER, and four SONS, in 
a DESERT ISLAND. Ten Engravings and a J\Iap. 
The genuine progress of the story forming a clear illustration of the first 
principles of Natural History, and many branches of Science which most 
immediately apply to the business of life. To which arc added Notes of 
Reference, explanatory of the subjects treated of. 



65. Boy's Story Book: 



Or EDWARD'S HOLIDAYS with his COUSINS, containing 
Twenty-Eight Moral Tales. Ten Engravings. 
Contents. — The Parrot. The Sacrifice. The little friend. The Walk. 
Christmas feast. Cousin Philip. The Ride. Arrival of travellers. 
Conversation. The T;isk. New year's day. Th ; Wonders. Fairy 
tale. Nosegays. Tale of the Woods. Snake in the grass. Little mo- 
ralist. Complete gardener. The Island. Copy book. Village feasts. 
Generous rivals. The Ring. Zoa. Young painter The Visit, The 
Auricula. The Farewell. 



66 & 67. Parent's Assistant 

By Maria Edgewokth. With Thirty-Four Engravings. 
Contains the following seventeen excellent Stories for Young Persons. 

Tarlton. Simple Susan. False key. Orphans. 

Lazy Lawrence. Basket woman. Birth day present. Barring out. 

Forgive and forget. White pigeon. Little Merchants. Bracelets. 

Waste not, want not. Eton Monteui. Old Poz. Mimic. 

Mademoiselle Panache. 
Q£y .Maria Edge worth is universally acknowledged to stand at the head of 

all author* of books for young people. 



ti8. Caskel of Gems. 



Being a collection of ORIGINAL MORAL TALES illustrating tbe 
following Maxims, with Illustrations to each: — 
Never be down-hearted. Be cheerful Do it well. Be orderly. Be in time. 
Be humble. Make agood use of it. Be considerate. Is it honest ? Be use- 
ful. Be steady. Be kind. Set about it directly. Be upright. Be tidy. 
Be satisfied. Envy not another. Be collected. Think Will it mend 
the matter? Be grateful. Do not deceive yourself. Beware of pride. Elm 
tree hall. The heavy cross. The hard task. The mad dog. Snowballing. 



69. The Evergreen : 



Or STORIES for CHILDREN and YOUTH, by Walter West. 

Twenty Engraving's. 
Contents. — Forest home, Eleanor Wilmot, Balloon, Happy New year, In- 
undation, Naughty boy punished, Noisy Cecilia, Ninepins, Insolent boy, 
Good little Mary, Ellen, Curiosity, Young teacher, George, Sailor boy'a 
Return, Truant Emmeline, the Careless girl, Miss Cecil, Too late for a 
ride, Reward of benevolence, Tom Morrison, Young Robinson Crusoe, 
Jane Primrose, Lion, Grateful Julian, Pincushions, Charles, Fourth of 
July, Vain girl, Clouds and sunshine. 



70 to 89. The Rollo and Lucy Books. 



By Jacob Abbott. Cornprisinj 
L Rollo learning to talk. 

2. Rollo learning to read. 

3. Rollo at work. 

4. Rollo at play. 

5. Rollo at school. 

6. Rollo's vacation. 

7. Rollo's travels. 

8. Rollo's experiments. 

9. Rollo's museum. 



; the following volumes. 
10. Rollo's correspondence. 
11 to 14. Rollo's philosophy. 

15. Lucy at play. 

16. Lucy at study. 

17. Lucy's conversations. 

18. Lucy's stories. 

19. Lucy on the mountains. 

20. Lucy on the sea shore. 



4 T0l», 



PRICES 

Of the various sets and volumes, neatly and strongly full bound in leather. 
— For Cash. — 



Lib. of Entertaining and Useful 

Reading. 12 vols. - 5.00 

Any of the vols, separately .50 
Lib. of Inst. Amusement. 6 vols. 2.50 

Any vols, seperatoly, - .50 

Belzoni's Egypt. - - - .50 
True stories. ... .50 

Around the World. 2 vols. - 1.50 
Zenobia. 2 vols. - - 1.25 

Life of Walter Scott. 4 vols. 3.00 
Parley's Magazine. 10 vols. 7.50 

Any vols, seperately - - 1.00 



Sundford and Merton. - - .75 
Dymond's Morality. .50 

New Home, &. Forest Life. 3 v. 2.00 
Letters from New York. - - .75 
Common Things. ... - .50 
Tales of a Grandfather. 7 vols. 3.50 
Mental and Moral Culture. - .50 
Librarian. ----- .50 
Parley's Magazine, vol. xi. - 1.00 
Historical &l Saxon Tales. 2 v. 1.00 
Boys' and Girls' Lib. 12 vols 5.00 
Rollo and Lucv Books. 20 vols. 7.50 



s$ 



837 



a 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 793 388 



ss 

IIL 



